Beating the odds - Some children of teenage mothers achieve success despite struggles

He was conceived after a one-night stand and was a prime candidate for an abortion as his mother was then just 14 years old, but Antonio Mitchell is happy today that the doctor his mother consulted refused her request to terminate the pregnancy.

"She got the money, went to the doctor's office to do the abortion, and upon getting to the office, she spoke to the doctor," said Mitchell, who is now a bishop at the John's Hall New Testament Church of God in St James.

"The doctor said, 'you know, this is what I do for a living, but I don't feel like doing this one'. As a result, I am here today," said Mitchell.

He was one of several offspring of adolescent mothers who openly spoke about their childhood experiences during the first of three lecture series being hosted by the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) at the University of West Indies Main Library.

The WCJF is celebrating 40 years, and has over these years provided an opportunity for adolescent mothers to continue their education while they prepare for motherhood.

"They (the WCJF) have done so much to stem the tide of intergenerational poverty, and have done so much to change shame and despair and to transform this into hope," noted Dr Dale Bean, a lecturer at the Regional Coordinating Unit of the Institute of Gender and Development Studies at the UWI.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange, also commended the organisation, and described the WCJF's latest undertaking as a "game changer".

"Never in the history of Jamaica have we sat down to engage the offspring of adolescent parents in this way, and this is really a wonderful, wonderful way to go," said Grange.

"We all know that when a girl becomes pregnant, her life changes in significant ways. Sometimes, the challenges are so great and rarely, if ever, it is for the better," she noted.

While the children of these young mothers admitted that their childhood was challenging at times, they are now making meaningful contributions to society.

"Life was just rough," said Michael Maragh, "to the point where I carried my shoes to the shoemaker to repair and he said, 'don't carry it back'."

Maragh's father was murdered when he was three years old, and this amplified the struggles for him and his mother, who raised him in the often volatile South St Andrew community of Wilton Gardens, popularly known as Rema.

His mother did not have any more children and worked in the canteen at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) to make ends meet.

"Everybody wanted to know what my mother did for a living and I told them that my mother is a 'pottist'. They say your mother is a pottist? And I would say yes, when you go to KPH, them have doctor, nurse, pharmacist, she worked in the kitchen, she washed the pots, so she is a pottist," said Maragh.

He did one CSEC subject every year until he could matriculate into the University of Technology, and is currently a principal finance officer at the Ministry of Health, a motivational speaker and a pastor at the Power of Faith Ministries International.

Educator Shawna Jackson said that being the offspring of an adolescent mother meant that she had to learn to fend for herself and her younger brother from early.

"From early, my mother was like, you have to save. That was primary for her, so we had partner plans as children. We would save from our school lunch money. When I was in primary school, it was like $50 for your lunch and $50 could go a far way. All the toiletries would have to be bought out of the monies that were saved up," she recounted.

"I had to take care of my brother, and at a tender age I had to cook. Today I am a home economics teacher," she said.

It was a similar situation for Trishana Williamson, who is currently an administrative secretary at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica. She said her childhood was very demanding because her mother had to go back to school in order to provide a better life for her and her younger brother.

"Being the first child, a lot of the responsibilities were on me, to cook, to make sure the house was tidy, to ensure that my home-work was done, my brother's homework was done," she said.

Several of the offspring at the forum spent their earlier years at a day care centre operated by the WCJF. Jody Ann Scott was one of these children, and she has since returned to the place which had given her mother hope, in the capacity of an educator.

Scott, who is the acting manager at the WCJF Montego Bay Centre, said her mother always encouraged her to focus on her education.

"Although my father was absent from my life, he never supported me, she remained strong (and) resilient. She realised that she had a responsibility, and that responsibility was me, so she ensured that I got an education whereby I can make a difference in people's life," said Scott.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com