Passionate advocate for children Betty Ann Blaine dies
Published:Tuesday | May 14, 2024 | 12:11 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Betty Ann Blaine is being remembered as a champion who fought passionately to protect Jamaica’s children.
The prominent children’s rights advocate died on Monday in Atlanta after ailing for some time. She was 75 years old.
Blaine, who founded lobby group Hear the Children’s Cry in 2002 and Youth Opportunities Unlimited in 1992, was “a child protection stalwart with a warm, yet indomitable spirit,” Chief Executive Officer of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) Laurette Adams Thomas said.
Hear the Children’s Cry was integral in the renaming of the Ananda Alert System from its former name, the Red Alert System. The organisation also influenced policy changes which resulted in the wait time to report a missing child from 24 hours to immediately, and provided psycho-emotional intervention to children who had gone missing as well as to their families.
A statement from Hear the Children’s Cry described Blaine as “one of their most heroic and dedicated advocates, and a dedicated, multifaceted developmental giant”, who “advocated for the welfare of children and their families, and for the eradication of poverty”.
Adams Thomas noted that the children’s right campaigner was not only a key partner in child protection efforts through her activism-based organisation, but had also previously served multiple terms on CPFSA’s advisory board, where she had contributed to the development of the agency during her tenure.
“In addition to being the first organisation in the Caribbean to sign on to the Global Missing Children’s Network in 2015, even leading the way for the CPFSA, Hear the Children’s Cry would have also increase their value to the Ananda Alert System by providing preventative counselling services to children likely to run away through their runaway prevention programme called ‘Let’s Talk, Don’t Walk’ in which children can call and speak with someone that they can trust if they are having any issues that may lead to them running away,” Adams Thomas said in a statement.
Blaine was born in Kingston and raised in Harbour View, St Andrew. She attended Excelsior High School and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College in New York City and a postgraduate degree from Columbia University.
She served as the pioneering holistic child development coordinator at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology in Kingston, and hosted two former weekday morning radio talk shows, ‘On The Agenda’ and ‘Blaine & Crawford’. She has also served as a university lecturer in Southern African and Black American History, and was a leading spokesperson in the Jamaican Anti-Apartheid Movement.
She continued to work in both the print and electronic media to inform, educate and engage in national dialogue on issues and concerns to citizens, mainly regarding children and their families.
In addition to advocating for children’s rights, she also had launched several business ventures to support the local economy, perhaps the best known being The Fish Place Restaurant.
Having worked with Blaine on numerous occasions, human rights activist and executive director for Stand Up for Jamaica Carla Gullotta extolled her dedication to the nation’s children.
‘Nuh watch nuh face’
“We have been working with abandoned children, abused children, children in the children’s home and she was doing a very good job. She was determined, she nuh watch nuh face when she wanted to say something and she has been committed for years to assist the children in Jamaica,” she said.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness expressed his condolences to her family, friends and colleagues, stating that her passion and commitment have touched countless lives.
“Her legacy will continue to inspire us to create a better Jamaica for all. May her soul find eternal peace,” said Holness in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Opposition Leader Mark Golding also expressed his condolences, and hailed Blaine for “her unwavering dedication to the welfare of our children”.
“Her legacy will continue to inspire us to create a better Jamaica for all,” he said.
Two years ago, the children’s right advocate shared with The Sunday Gleaner her undying desire for Jamaica to be a country in which children were safe.
“I am hoping that before I die I will see a Jamaica fully fit for children. This Jamaica is not fit for children, but still I have a hope.”
Blaine was also a committed Christian and leaves behind two daughters, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.