Male Adolescents
The general aim of the UAP program is to promote the rights of
children to develop to their fullest potential by empowering schools
and parents, and assisting them to facilitate the development of
their children's potential.
The Rural Family Support Organization expanded rapidly in response to
clients and community demands. Counseling is the undergirding of the
program and this extends from the Center outwards to the homes of the
teenage mothers, to the schools of the community, as it embraces the
mothers and their babies, as well as their families and wider
community.
We intervene in the lives of teenage mothers by giving them the
opportunity to complete their schooling, develop practical marketable
skills and learn to be better mothers.
We integrate the guidance and counseling services of the program
with that of the schools, and we sensitize the teachers to the
emotional problems of their adolescents. This program works with
boys and girls together abolishing distinctions of treatment between
the sexes.
The age group participating is 10 - 14, a critical age in adolescence.
It could be argued that, that age group ought to be in the school
system, but the reality is that many of them are drop-outs for one
reason or another. This is not surprising as provisions for counseling
in the school system are grossly inadequate. In some instances the ratio
is as high as 1 Counselor to 1,000 students.
In and in an attempt to reach the root cause of the problem, RFSO moved
from a position of mere remediation to one of prevention.
Day Care Unit
A Day Care Unit has been established at the Center to provide nurturing
for the children of teenage mothers and to reverse the pattern that led
to the continuation of the problem of teen pregnancy by having the
children reared in a climate which is designed to give them a feeling of
security and self worth.
The quality care which the Center's day nursery provides for the children
caught the attention of UNICEF, and today in collaboration with UNICEF we
are providing training and supervision for all Home-based Nurseries in
Clarendon, Manchester and sections of St. Catherine. In order to reach
the very rural children, we are currently implementing a Roving
Care-givers Program which is reaching the homes of the very poor who
cannot afford to pay for the facilities which are provided by day care
units.
Goals
- Assist adolescents to develop their self-esteem by helping them to
see themselves as worthwhile individuals, capable of setting goals and
working towards reaching such goals.
- Assist adolescents to achieve economic independence through vocational
and technical training, literacy and remedial work and counseling.
Objectives
- Assist adolescents to cope with their sexuality through Family Life
Education and counseling, so that a minimum of seventy percent (70%)
will be proficient in one skill and demonstrate the right attitude to
work, life and one another.
- Assist adolescents to achieve economic independence and a sense of
well being through technical and vocational training in entrepreneurial
skills. This aims at obtaining at least fifty percent (50%) of the
participants achieving functional literacy and sixty percent (60%) ready
for entry into a structured vocational training program or limited
entrepreneurial endeavors.
Based on our track record of success the Rural Family Support
Organization continues its work through:
- reintroducing vibrant counseling programs which extend from the May
Pen centers to the schools and ultimately into homes.
- providing literacy and remedial programs for youngsters who are not
functionally literate.
- offering a parenting program to three groups of parents - teenage
parents, parents of teen mothers and parents of students in the target
schools for Family Life Education.
General Information
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Male Adolescents
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The UAP2 Programme
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