The Calderwood Mother and Children Centre Jamaica
Christiene Walford-Wilmot, the centre manager, is the JP (Justice of Peace) of Calderwood District St. Ann in Jamaica and a BSC Educator with forty years teaching experience in primary and early learning. She is a member of the St. Ann Retired Teachers’ Association, Vice Chair of the Grant’s Mountain Primary and Infant School, St. Ann and the Women’s President in her church.
As the Manager for the Calderwood MaC (Mother and Children) Centre my main role is to create a safe learning environment for the children to develop core skills in readiness for starting school. Working with the mothers to help develop their parenting skills and encourage interacting with their children is also a key responsibly. I demonstrate and assist them in using the resources and educational materials to ensure their children are given the best support to begin discovering and exploring their senses, while developing core motor skills.
Jamaica has the third lowest adult literacy rate in the Caribbean, so engaging the children in books and encouraging the mothers to read with their children plays an important part of the centre’s objectives. The MaC Centre is a hub that is bringing the community closer together in providing a common learning environment where parents can share strengths and weaknesses. Our aim is to create a holistic lifestyle giving parents an opportunity to access a variety of learning resources that will contribute to all aspects of their children’s development.
The MaC Centre is generating a great deal of interest and support within the community. Young parents, especially mothers, are looking to the centre to support them with setting up online accounts and help develop their IT, literacy and employability skills. Local people have been suggesting ways to raise funds to help the centre move to its next phase of supporting the elderly and SEN members of the community and provide a safe space for young people to study with text books and internet access.
I believe the MaC Centre has been a lifeline for many citizens living in Calderwood, especially the young mothers and their children. I feel blessed to be part of this incredible initiative and honoured to play my part in promoting its facilities and benefits to the wider community.
The Calderwood MaC (Mother and Children) Centre was founded in July 2020 by Evadne Bygrave in memory of her late father, Egbert George Bygrave, who built the centre for the Calderwood community in 1996.
Steve Sinnott Foundation • March 25, 2021
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us.
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.
