May is officially Child Month in Jamaica. This month honours children and raises awareness about the issues they face in this country. Here is a link to the message from the Child Development Agency of Jamaica, and an excerpt below:

Nevertheless our society continues be a place where children are not as safe as they should be. Children continue to be exposed to the negative aspects of our culture, and subject to neglect, abuse and acts of violence at the hands of persons in their families and communities.

Unfortunately, this country is not always an easy one to grow up in, but officials do work towards remedies for this. They are currently updating the Child Care and Protection Act and the media and NGOs certainly do their part to raise awareness of human rights as they apply to children. All this to say that last night we attended a banquet in the community of Mountain View in honour of Child Month. We were invited by Ann, who seemingly keeps this community together with the help of several other leaders. It was a fantastic show: there were drama performances, dance crews, individual dancers (Percival did a respectable Michael Jackson impersonation), and food!

There were probably about 150 children and they got the seats of honour. They were also served first: soup, chicken, peas and rice, salad, and of course, ice cream and cake. They were also treated to an inspirational talk about how special they are from Ruth, a representative from the Ministry of Youth and Culture. Then, the children all got up on stage to dance. It seemed, between that and when the ice cream and cake were served, that control was about to be lost as they were so excited, but the adults regained some semblance of order. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. Hopefully, the children felt honoured and special, as Ruth entreated them to.