‘We can be success stories’ - Former ward of the state tells of triumph after childhood trauma

WESTERN BUREAU:

Golda-mae Bullock’s life has not been the same since she lost her mother at the age of 12 and went on a roller coaster of trauma with her father, who subjected her to severe beatings before the Child Development Agency intervened and made her a ward of the State.

“It was a lengthy and painful process, because this was the only remaining parent I had. Regardless of all the ‘bad’ ‘ happening in the home, you want to stay with that one parent you have, you want to stay in what you know as home,” Bullock told The Gleaner during the Children of Jamaica Outreach (COJO) Awards Gala and Scholarships in New York recently.

A former COJO recipient who graduated from The University of the West Indies, Mona, Bullock said the beatings she suffered at the hands of her father were so severe that even now at 21 years old, she is forced to cover her limbs. For years she wore her hair in her face to prevent the scars from being noticed.

She also said she wore a sweater to hide the lacerations and was embarrassed when a teacher at St Mary High School commanded her to take it off.

“When I did, he was shocked, because I had markings running up my hands, in my forehead because I wore my hair in my face. He didn’t know what to do, so he sent me to the guidance counsellor,” she said.

The matter was subsequently reported and she was listed as a child in need of care and protection. Her maternal grandmother, who was almost 80 years old at the time, was deemed ineligible to adopt her, so her case became even more dire.

The officer who oversaw her case was strident in her fight to ensure she was not placed in a place of safety and get “caught in the system”. Bullock said the officer was even determined to adopt her, if all else failed, in order to ensure she beat the “odds that are against children in the system”, particularly uncertainty about the future and of tertiary education upon reaching adulthood and exiting state care.

Foster care

The relentlessness of the CDA officer eventually bore fruit and Bullock was placed into the foster care of her grandmother, who was eventually deemed “eligible under special circumstances”.

“My maternal grandmother had a broken hip, broken foot, broken arm. She was in a bad shape, but she fought. The CDA fought and came through that I was able to complete high school. I did CXC, CAPE and I was admitted into The University of the West Indies,” she said.

With the support of the CDA, which has since merged with the Office of the Children’s Registry and been renamed the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, Bullock was able to read for a degree in accounting and management, graduating last month with second-class honours.

For Bullock, the stigma associated with being a ward of the State, or a child in need of care and protection, is something that she wants to work to dispel. She acknowledges that people with a history similar to hers are often perceived as bad or out of control.

“Persons need to be informed; we are not at fault. Most of us who are in the state care system, it would have just been a matter of life just taking its course and the odds being stacked against us, and the State stepping in to help us,” the 21-year-old told The Gleaner.

“We are not out on the streets running up and down. We are in the system ... where we can make something better of ourselves, where we cannot be just victims of society but success stories.”

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com