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Boys awarded for improved academics, behaviour out west

Published:Wednesday | November 20, 2019 | 12:14 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
Pastor Errol Rattray (standing in the centre of the second row), president and chief executive officer of the Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association, is surrounded by scholarship recipients, their relatives, guidance counsellors, and representatives of the Ministry of Education.
Pastor Errol Rattray (standing in the centre of the second row), president and chief executive officer of the Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association, is surrounded by scholarship recipients, their relatives, guidance counsellors, and representatives of the Ministry of Education.

WESTERN BUREAU:

At a time when Jamaica’s men and boys are falling prey to violence, crime, and other ­unsavoury vices, the Errol Rattray Evangelistic Association (EREA) last week presented scholarships and gifts to 15 male students in western Jamaica to acknowledge their excellence in academic performances and behaviour.

The presentation ceremony, which took place at the Faith Temple Assembly of God in Montego Bay, saw the boys from 15 different schools in St James, Hanover, Westmoreland and Trelawny, receiving cheques ­valued at $150,000, as well as ­personal Bibles.

The awards were given in ­recognition of the recipients’ improved performances ­following their participation in EREA’s Western Regional Boys’ Conference in Montego Bay last November.

EREA president and chief ­executive officer, Pastor Errol Rattray, explained that the boys’ conference, which was being staged in eastern Jamaica since 2003, expanded into western Jamaica in 2016. Plans are in place to expand it into central Jamaica soon.

“For the past 16 years we’ve been having the conference in Kingston, and we have now had three boys’ conferences in western Jamaica. Starting next year, we’re expanding our boys’ conference into central Jamaica, so we’re having a third boys’ conference where we are taking in Clarendon, Manchester, and St Elizabeth,” said Rattray.

“Seventy per cent of those in our churches, who teach in our schools, and who are graduating from our universities are women, and our homes are mostly ‘manned’ by women. We at EREA are trying to see how we can shift that to where it’s a one-to-one ratio in terms of our men and women, and we believe these conferences are about a shift from what is negative and to help the children,” added Rattray.

Lester Gordon, a student of The Manning’s School in Westmoreland, who is one of the 15 recipients, expressed much appreciation for EREA’s recognition of the boys’ scholarly and personal development.

“Some of us were misbehaving, disobedient to parents, and performing poorly academically, but thanks to EREA’s intervention programme, today we’re being awarded for significant ­improvement in our behaviour. We will use this scholarship as ­motivation towards building a strong inward passion towards becoming the success stories we were meant to be,” said Gordon.