Women’s Centre Of Jamaica Foundation To Open Two Facilities On Thursday

The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) Santa Cruz Outreach Centre in St Elizabeth, and the renovated Mandeville Centre Day Nursery, Manchester, will be officially opened on Thursday, September 30.

Approximately $36 million was spent by government to construct the Centre, while the renovation of the Nursery was at a cost of $14 million.  The Centre, which has two classrooms, a nursery, kitchen, dining facility and an administrative block, will strengthen the delivery of the WCJF’s Programme for Adolescent Mothers (PAM).

PAM is the WCJF’s core programme and is executed islandwide through the Foundation’s main centres and outreach stations. It enables adolescent mothers to continue their education during pregnancy and prepares them to be reintegrated into the formal school system after they have given birth.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon Olivia Grange, will officially open the centre and nursery during a tour of the facilities on Thursday. She will be accompanied by chairperson of the Board of Directors, WCJF, Debby-Ann Brown-Salmon and Executive Director of the WCJF, Dr. Zoe Simpson.

Dr Simpson said that the outreach centre, which was originally housed at the Sharon Baptist Church, did not provide a reliable and suitable location for the 46 adolescent mothers currently enrolled in the programme.

Additionally, she said that the limited space at the Day Nursery was unsuitable for the 30 babies who are catered for at the facility.

“The new facility will ensure that the babies of adolescent mothers receive care inclusive of early stimulation and will provide suitable space for the young mothers to breast feed their babies in comfort,” Dr Simpson said.