Thirty teen mothers are now better equipped with skills to provide for themselves and their children after they graduated from the Carnegie School of Home Economics in the programmes Elementary Cookery and Cake Decorating.
These courses that were offered form part of the reintegration programme being executed by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health.
Programme Coordinator, Ms. Janel Sweatnam, urged the young ladies to further advance their skills in the respective field by taking advantage of opportunities that will become available in the near future.
The collaborative effort between the two ministries began a number of years ago and it has been successful with yesterday having the first batch of graduates from the five week programme.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Boyle, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said that the collaboration is part of the Public Health Ministry’s community support programme for young mothers.
She said that the families of the graduates must be thanked for providing the support to the teenage mothers so that they could have been able to attend classes every week.
Dr. Boyle reminded the graduates about late American Author and Political Activist, Helen Keller, who was able to achieve a lot in an era where a woman’s presence was considered to be necessary only in the kitchen. She said that Keller’s story was remarkable since she was both blind and deaf but was still able to defy the odds.
Dr. Boyle shared with the graduates a famous Keller quote, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
The Public Health official encouraged the women that regardless of their backgrounds and personal situations, they need to have a vision as to what they want to achieve in life and work towards that by not limiting themselves.
“It is an important message for us women today. It doesn’t matter what your circumstances started off as; it doesn’t matter what the curveball in life might throw at you, the important thing is that here and now, to have a vision for yourself,” Dr. Boyle advised.
The principal of the Carnegie School of Home Economics, Ms. Myrna Lee, told the graduates that it was a great pleasure to share in the experience. Even as she recognised the strategic collaboration between the two Ministries as outstanding, Lee congratulated the teachers and the students for beginning well and ending well.
