International child advocate Dr Wess Stafford believes there is hope for the country, as the Church plays its role in making positive changes, and despite the many problematic issues that confront children.

Stafford said this week the problems facing children in Jamaica are not unique or limited to this country, as the same issues are faced in other nations to which he has travelled.

"I rarely find Church leadership in a country that is more (than in Jamaica) broken-hearted about the plight of the children in the country," said Stafford.

Hearts of the people

For this reason, he said he gets hope when he examines the Jamaican situation, as the hearts of the Jamaican people, leadership, and the Church is broken and showed that they are determined to do something about the grave situation facing the island.

He praised the efforts being implemented by the Church, as he explained that similar problems exist in other countries where the Church sometimes turns a blind eye, and government does not care.

"I will walk out of here, even as this conference begins, extremely hopeful for Jamaica. It's a great place, just like I always thought it was. Its people are amazing," he added.

He told The Gleaner that he believes there is hope but a paradigm shift is needed as people must notice and believe in children.

Dr Las Newman, president of the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology, agreed there is still hope and noted that a programme is being offered by the school in a bid to train people offering care to children across the region.

Development processes

Newman said the holistic child-development diploma, which is done in partnership with Compassion International, will train people in development processes involved in raising children.

He said this can be achieved through distance education for others outside Jamaica.

Newman told The Gleaner that the hope is to bring greater awareness of the issue, with the ultimate goals of reducing risks children are exposed to in Jamaica, and to create remedial programmes for correcting existing problems.

He noted, however, that attention would be directed especially to maintenance of proper standards.

"We know there is a problem with maintaining standards and so part of the intention of this course is to train caregivers and home managers to help them understand the role as they are responsible for the care and development of these children," he said.