This is the theme of the latest letter from Jamaica, sent by our friends Jane and Roy Dodman. Twenty-three years ago Jane and Roy packed up their home in Westerhope and went with their two small children, David and Mary, to Edinburgh to train as missionaries under the auspices of The Church of Scotland. Jane’s background was in teaching and Roy’s in social work and they were sent to Jamaica to work in Hannah Town, a shanty-town district of Kingston with an extremely high level of deprivation. The original plan was that they would be there for a period of three years, but they became so involved with the people and the work that they are there still!
Initially Jane’s work was as a teacher in a Basic School (kindergarten), which was the one of the first projects started by the Mel Nathan Institute. The ‘Mel Nathan Institute for Development and Social Research’ was founded in 1978 and is based on the belief that human development is the key to community and national development.Institute now runs a wide range of projects including the Basic School and adjacent Prep School (primary school),workshops for young people in skills such as dressmaking and carpentry, a guest house and a variety of community groups for children, adolescents and the elderly. While the centre of the’s work is with the residents of Hannah Town, a community where there are still high levels of unemployment, poverty, overcrowding and violence, Mel Nathan also offers consultancy services in other parts of the island, providing training and helping the poorest communities to access funds for health centres, schools, water supplies and roads. The latest project is the Mel Nathan College, one of three colleges that make up the International University of the Caribbean, launched in November 2005. Jane’s role gradually changed from teaching to management as she helped develop these services and sought the funding that allows them to happen; she is now one of the directors of the Institute and Principal of Mel Nathan College.
Roy’s role has also changed: he found himself more and more involved with the work of the church, and after a few years in Jamaica undertook theological training and is now an ordained minister in the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Isles, with responsibility for three large country parishes in the hills above Kingston. David and Mary went to school in Jamaica, returned to the UK for university and are both now working in Jamaica. The whole family are deeply involved in the life of the country at local and national level and it is difficult to keep track of their varied and interconnected activities. What comes over very clearly is that in Jamaica the church is still very much involved in many otherwise secular areas.
Over the years we have kept in contact with the family by letter, phone and e-mail, spending time together when they are back in the UK and making one very memorable visit in 2004, to share the celebrations for David’s wedding. It was as a result of this visit, when we saw for ourselves the poverty of the resources in the schools, that we made the request for children’s books, a request that Ponteland URC responded to with generosity.
At the end of 2005, the Church of Scotland pulled out of the Caribbean and for a while it seemed possible that Jane and Roy would be unable to continue their work. However people from some of the ‘partner’ presbyteries, that have supported Jane and Roy over the past two decades, have come together to form ‘Jamaica Education Support’ (JES) a UK-based charity, which will continue to channel funds to help the important work in parts of Jamaica that most tourists never see.
Letters from Jane and Roy always give us much food for thought and, as we are now sharing their ‘partner’ letters with the church at Ponteland, Raymond asked me to write this piece, which I hope has given some of the background to our involvement. Please contact me if you would like additional information or would like to become a more active partner.
Gil Dye
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