GoodHeart | Jamaican Women of Florida lend helping hands to Melody House

Giving back is second nature for United States resident chiropractor Dr Venessa Walker. “My mother was a registered nurse at Cornwall Regional Hospital, and my dad is a pastor, so it runs in my blood,” observed the Jamaican-born physician who migrated as a nine-year-old from Mount Salem, St James to settle in the ‘Sunshine State’.

Acts of service for her island home have remained top of mind, distance notwithstanding.

As the current president of the Jamaican Women of Florida (JWOF), Walker’s philanthropic efforts have focused on improving the lives of wards of State at the Montego Bay Community Home for Girls.

“We have supported the home for 13 years now,” she informed GoodHeart. “Part of the mission of our organisation is to pour back into young women of Jamaican descent, and this year, we are introducing an academic scholarship valued at US$1,000 (approximately J$157,000) to one of the girls who is presently attending Mount Alvernia High School.”

Walker was home in Montego Bay last month, travelling with a group of 17 JWOF members for their annual visit to their club’s adopted place of safety, also referred to as Melody House.

The dual-citizen women jetted in bearing gifts for the young ladies, and ready to roll up their sleeves.

“We brought 12 new laptops for the girls, as well as novels, biographies and self-help books to add to the shelves in the house library,” she shared. “We’re also here to do some painting to refresh the walls in a number of rooms inside, and work outside, weeding and planting crops and flowers.”

Besides newly purchased technology, the young ladies at Melody House received boxes of Locsanity hair care products donated by the company’s founder and JWOF member, Charmaine James.

Inside the bags were apricot moisturising and nourishing shampoo, scalp refresh and soothing spray, and protective and nourishing style sculpt and shine gel.

Unable to make the trip to Jamaica on account of pressing work commitments, James said her support for the girls’ home was more than a charitable gesture.

“While I couldn’t be there in person, being part of the JWOF collective means showing up meaningfully for the future generation of Jamaican women,” she told GoodHeart in a telephone interview from her Coral Springs, Florida office.

“I’m always prepared to assist as best I can, whether in kind or cash when possible,” she added.

Back at Melody House, Walker and company had a busy schedule of activities ahead of them to beautify the residence’s interiors.

Their itinerary continued a raft of rehabilitation projects which, the overseas-based women’s organisation funded in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa last October.

“We were immediately responsive with post-hurricane assistance from mould remediation and treatment, to tarps to cover the roof, and replacement of water tanks,” the good doc outlined of the aid that was extended.

Further to this, damaged mattresses were replaced, Starlink service installed, chicken coops repaired, and chicken feed and supplies restocked. Fallen trees were also removed from the property located in the hills of Irwin in the western parish.

MEANINGFUL BONDS

Looking to forge meaningful bonds with the home’s girls, aged between 12 and 18 years old, Walker disclosed that a day of relaxation and fun was on the cards. The Saturday ‘girls’ day out’ was hosted at a villa in Sugar Hill, Montego Bay.

“Our visiting JWOF members and the young ladies of Melody House enjoyed a day of self-care, understanding more about their independence, and learning about human trafficking, while chilling by the pool and doing karaoke in-between,” she revealed.

Thankful for helping hands, the home’s founder, Christine Dexter, warmly welcomed the benevolent Jamericans, as she stacked the bookshelves with the newly received titles.

Dexter, a former probation officer, and her colleagues, Jacqueline Kennedy and Reverend Lloyd Morris, opened the doors of the Montego Bay Community Home for Girls in September 1979.

“When you saw the girls that came to court, they were more often than not, molested at home, or had serious social problems,” the now 85-year-old Dexter reminisced.

“One day the idea came to me, ‘Couldn’t we open somewhere we could help some of these girls?’ The government had homes, but in my opinion, the treatment in the homes at the time was difficult and felt like prisoner situations. We said we need a home, not an area where they would be punished, but a place where they would find love and guidance, and people cared.”

As to what warms her heart in assessing the house’s four-decade-plus history, Dexter is most happy about the life transformations.

“Many of the girls who have passed through, they have truly made us proud. They have become professionals across so many spectrums. They are now teachers, nurses, police officers, soldiers, and even bankers. Some have started their own business[es], and we have persons who have been recruited in the United States Army abroad,” she beamed.

In the meantime, Walker, who was elected to JWOF’s presidency in February, has the introduction of a pilot programme for a business cohort high on her year-long agenda.

“I am looking to implement a programme for women who have new businesses and may be looking to access tools to improve their capacity. It would be a six-week cohort where we tackle different structures that tie to entrepreneurship, and at the end of it all, there would be a pitch component towards someone receiving a stipend [to assist] their business,” she explained of her vision for the club, whose membership has in excess of 300 Jamaicans resident across the state of Florida enrolled.

Having operated her own business, Walker Chiropractic Wellness Center in Miramar since 2014, the physician said her envisioned JWOF programme would seek applications from women living in the south Florida region.

Last year, the women’s organisation awarded scholarships valued at US$41,000 (J$6.4 million) to 13 college-bound students in Florida of first- or second-generation heritage to attend North American universities.

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