CDA on Hand to Support Grieving Families, says Youth Minister

The Minister of Youth and Culture, the Hon. Lisa Hanna, in condemning the perpetrators of violence on the nation’s children, has indicated that the Child Development Agency (CDA) has deployed a team of first responders to the communities where the incidents have occurred and will be providing grief counselling and other emotional support to the families of the deceased.

“The CDA has already responded and has done preliminary intervention, however, over the next two weeks the Ministry of Youth and Culture through the CDA will be partnering with the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) and other supporting agencies to host parenting sensitization sessions in these communities as well as in the schools the children attended. These sessions will, among other things, focus on coping with grief, child care and protection as well as approaches to discipline,” the Minister added.

These interventions form part of the CDA’s existing First Responders programme under which officers deployed across the island visit communities and families that have been traumatized by violence, death of a child, parent, caregiver or where a child has witnessed violence or in instances where a family has been affected by natural or manmade disasters.

Minister Hanna noted that in light of the recent cases involving 14-year-old Santoya Campbell of Frome in Westmoreland and 3-year-old Crystal Coleman of St. Mary who were reportedly murdered and 14-year-old Treshauna Henry, also from St Mary, whose cause of death is still unknown, the CDA will take a tailored approach to address the immediate needs of the families, communities and schools involved.

The Minister added that the discovery of a new born baby in a garbage bin in Ocho Rios, St Ann is also very horrifying and has called on all well thinking Jamaicans to exercise greater levels of care, love and support to the nation’s children and be more vigilant in safeguarding their lives.

“I am horrified by the sudden upsurge of violence targeting our children,” the Minister said. “I strongly condemn these murders and other deaths.”

In expressing her deepest sympathies to the families of the children involved in all incidents, as they go through this very difficult experience, the Minister pledged the continued support of the CDA who has been proactively working across the island to amplify among residents, strategies for the care and protection of their children.