Young People Urged to Join 4-H Movement

Young people within the parish of St. Ann and the wider Jamaica are being encouraged to get involved in the 4-H movement to benefit from the many training programmes that the organization has to offer.
St. Ann 4-H Parish Development Officer, Eugenie Walters, told JIS News that organization was on a drive to attract more young people, 16 years and older. The membership of the parish is 2,000 with 1,406 leaders.
“This year, we have a total of 53 clubs organized in our schools. We have seven special clubs in the basic schools and what we are aiming for is to begin 4-H at a very tender age where our young children are exposed to the same discipline in the simple version,” she stated.
She noted the movement provided a lot of opportunities for youngsters, citing training programmes in the tractor driving and home economics, and scholarships.
Commenting on the parish’s annual achievement day, which was held recently at the Moneague Primary and Junior High School under the theme: ‘Transforming Jamaica Through Youth Development’, Mrs. Walters said that the displays were excellent and praised the children for their good work.
She informed that a total of 14 schools participated this year in areas such as cake baking and decorating, drink making, one pot meal preparation, and bed and skirt making.
Executive Director for the Jamaica 4-H Club, Lenworth Fulton, told JIS News that the organization was preparing young people to be productive citizens. “Many of our young people have gone through school without the requisite CXC passes and have come to our programmes for practical training and as such, we have programmes like the tractor driving and maintenance programme and the home economics programme at Denbigh, both of which have NCTVET level 1 certification and are doing very well,” he said.
He added that other courses were being offered in areas such as citrus, crop and livestock production and that these courses were also doing well. “We have about 65,000 clubbites and this year we have lowered the age of entrants from 9 years to 5 years old, so that the children in the basic schools can start to do simple environmental projects,” he informed.
“In a sense, we are journeying on in 4-H and every year we make progress within the Jamaica 4-H Clubs,” he pointed out.
Mr. Fulton also appealed to the young people to join the movement. “Come on board because it will be worth it.”
For those interested in the courses offered at Denbigh, Mr. Fulton advised that, “you must be 18 years or older and you can contact our office at 927-4050-2 and we will place you with the appropriate officer across Jamaica, who will register you for the course.”