A GREAT PLACE TO START

By Tucker Barton

As part of our global education mandate, Jamaican Self-Help offers two-week awareness trips to Jamaica for Canadian high school youth.  These trips are based in Kingston, and include volunteer placements at two inner-city schools and a children’s home, evening sessions with community leaders, and cross-cultural activities.  Approximately 16 youth and 2 youth assistants are part of each trip, organized once or twice a year by volunteer leaders.  Here are some reflections of Tucker Barton, our main Trip Leader, Board member, and a teacher at Trinity College School in Port Hope.

A couple of hours ago I watched a miracle.  The students from my school who went on the JSH awareness trips in December and March of this year gave a presentation to five hundred of their peers. They told tales of beautiful relationships that were built, and of eye opening experiences, experiences that allowed them to come back and reflect on their lives and privileges here in Canada.  They spoke with passion and tears, and gave fitting tribute to their experiences in Kingston.  Perhaps more importantly, they showed that they were comfortable being a tad more humble than they were before they left.  For young adults growing up with the pressures of today’s world, that is a pretty big step to take in front of your peers.

I have had the privilege of leading these trips for over 10 years now.  Although this programme is a small part of what JSH does, this is one of the major ways that our tiny little NGO impacts the lives of Canadians. Past trip participants are now working for CIDA, for international NGOs such as CARE and Engineers without Borders, and they are working in their communities, fighting for change of all sorts. We’re proud that a significant percentage of past participants who had the opportunity to work in schools in Kingston have become teachers themselves, either in Canada or internationally. They are more confident travelling off the beaten track, and the vast majority has continued to be engaged in the world as volunteers, either at home or abroad.

It’s hard to imagine that these shifts can happen in just two weeks on the ground in Kingston, and really they don’t. The students who come with us usually admit that they’re already searching for ways to engage with their world in a more positive way, and to some extent we just open the door to allow them to do that.  By depriving them of some of their creature and technological comforts for the trip, we’re asking them to engage in the world in an old fashioned way, which they are surprisingly eager to do. But it’s the people that they meet on the ground in Kingston - longtime friends of JSH - who really show them that they can make a difference.  To quote Fabian Brown, “it’s not rocket science.”  Through JSH, the students meet people who have dedicated themselves to fighting for change under challenging circumstances.   It’s pretty hard to come back from Jamaica and not want to do the same.  Standing up in front of your peers and confirming your dedication is a great place to start.

Charitable Registration Number: 89733 7150RR0001