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The Westhaven Children’s Home was set up in Jamaica in 1986 by Mrs Gloria Viera, with the aim of caring for abandoned children and for children with nowhere to go once they were too old for Government homes (at about 8 years old). The Home is located in the village of Copse in Hanover Parish in the west of the island and currently houses around 80 children with varying degrees of mental and physical disability. Their ages range from four to 27.
The children at the Home are housed in four cottages and are split into groups by age and sex. Each cottage has a house mother, an assistant house mother and two attendants. There are also two cooks in a staff of 48 in all, who work on a split-shift system. The Home is trying to help the children with their development and so there is a small classroom but the teacher and craft teacher are both volunteers and cannot commit to the hours needed. A doctor visits once a week. Many of the children are epileptic and require medication. The Home ends up paying for most of the drugs as they have to wait so long for prescriptions from the hospital.
While the Home has managed to put in place some improvements to the children’s daily lives (a new playground was donated and installed the other day, for instance), there is an ongoing needs for funds. At present any money the Home receives goes towards general upkeep, to staff, food, clothing and medication.
Government support for the Home is minimal, amounting to a small subsidy and a customs waiver (as long as there is a three week notice of arriving goods, with a full breakdown of items, be it clothes, books, food, etc). This means that the home operates almost entirely on private or corporate sponsorship and by donations or gifts. Staff members are paid the minimum wage out of these donations.
For the home to continue providing the care its children need it needs your support. Please see below for ways in which to help. |
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Ways to Donate
Mission Jamaica maintains a number of dedicated funds that benefit the Westhaven Children’s Home. There are the ‘Support a Child’ program - #24537, a general Westhaven Children’s Home Fund - #29032, which goes towards everyday expenses, and the Westhaven Appliance Fund - #24543, which is used to replace appliances as they wear out (there is laundry to do at each cottage eight hours a day, seven days a week). Finally there is also a fund that benefits the continuing education for Westhaven’s staff and a dedicated fund for the construction of the fifth cottage.
To find out how you can contribute to this project or become involved, please contact Denny Kiel at Mission Jamaica. |
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History
Westhaven Children’s Home was started in 1986 by a group of concerned citizens led by Mrs Gloria Viera, a health care professional who had previously worked with the Child Development Agency for 30 years. A local survey documented the need for a residential facility in the western parishes of Jamaica to help children with disabilities to reach their full potential.
The first cottage at the Home opened in December 1991. Two more cottages were opened in 1993 and the fourth in 2003. There are now four fully operational cottages with over eighty children on roll, aged between three and 27 years old. The home is under the jurisdiction of and is licensed by the Children’s Services Division, Ministry of Health.
The ongoing operational costs of the home are supported in part by maintenance funds from the Ministry, on Fit Person Orders, but the largest proportion of support comes from continuing donations from local and overseas individuals, businesses and groups.
The home is located on government land in Copse, Hanover, on a former sugar plantation. Also located there are the Copse Place of Safety (a boy’s home), Copse Basic School and a small local health centre. Copse is a community of small farmers (provision holders) and the home provides an income for many women in the community.
Westhaven is becoming an important community centre and a source of information on caring for persons with disabilities, helping to expand expectations of what they can accomplish. Many people come to Westhaven to ask for help with instruction on the care of their own disabled children.
Mission Jamaica has been working with Westhaven Children’s Home and the Copse community since 1995. In 2000 Westhaven Children’s home created a seat on their Board of Directors for a Mission Jamaica representative. |
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Programmes
The ‘Vacation with a Purpose’ programme recruits teams from around the USA, primarily from the ELCA Lutheran Church. This year Mission Jamaica is mobilizing almost 600 volunteers to work at Westhaven and Copse Place of Safety for the winter season. They work from Sunday to Wednesday, with Thursdays and Fridays set aside for traditional tourist activities (Scuba, Golf, beach and organized tours) and rest.
Team members help with bathing, dressing, holding, feeding, rocking, caring for and loving around 80 disabled orphans from age two to 27. Mission Jamaica provides each cottage team leader with a staff and child directory for their specific cottage. These pictorial directories give names and histories of the children, and names and a brief biography of the cottage staff.
Physical therapists and other volunteers help the Jamaican therapist and assistants in exercise programmes for the children. Team members organize a “Sunday School” team to witness and spend organized time with the children. These can include puppet ministries, vacation bible school, other children’s ministry, etc. One of the most popular teams is the minstrel team that goes cottage to cottage, leading happy children and staff in music and sing-alongs.
Team members with classroom skills also organize classroom teaching and learning activities. The schoolroom is available. Fifteen children from Westhaven attend school at the schoolhouse built by Mission Jamaica and their Jamaican partners.
Mission Jamaica has begun the construction of the 3,600 square foot fifth cottage for the Home. This cottage has been designed by Westhaven’s Board of Directors building committee for the older residents at the Home and will include a craft area, a staff lunch area, a covered area to hang clothes to dry. |
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Achievements
Feed my Starving Children Food Programme
In 2003, the Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, in partnership with Mission Jamaica, shipped 34 pallets of a fully nutritious dietary supplement to each Mission Partner in Jamaica, see here. This translates into enough protein, vitamins, and minerals to supply over 1,000 children with healthy nutrition for an entire year.
The Fourth cottage is now in operation and is occupied by some of the smallest children currently at Westhaven. |
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Case Studies
The ‘Lutherans and Orphans go to the Beach’ day is one of the most eagerly awaited events of the winter mission season by Westhaven’s children. This annual event is the one day in the year that every orphan leaves the orphanage for a bus ride, picnic and day at the ocean. Recently, the administration has coordinated the beach day outing with a visit from the exterminator, a successful practice will be repeated this year. Every year a different team hosts the beach day event. Rose Hall Beach Club has been providing the beach and caters the picnic lunch for over 150 orphans, staff and volunteers. |
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Needs
Every year Mission Jamaica does general repairs as needed at Westhaven. The water reservoir tank needs repairing as does the garden irrigation system, which was disconnected during the construction of the physiotherapy room.
There is always need for a handyman to repair existing dining tables, roof leaks, repair or replace doors in all cottages, and to paint as needed. Other ongoing jobs are the installation of new locksets, knobs and latches.
Sewing teams are also needed for general repairs to the children’s clothing, with buttons, iron-on patches, Velcro zippers, regular zippers, etc. Also to sew new clothing, especially adaptive clothing that accommodates individual handicaps or unique sizes.
Mosquito screens are needed for the windows in the children’s dormitories.
The physical therapy room, the well room, pump house and water tank all need another coat of paint, as do the headboards for the beds. There is always an ongoing need for painting on the Westhaven Campus.
Other needs
1. Hair Clippers
2. Bin liners
3. Six foot American Flag.
4. Sing along, Barney, Sesame Street and Walt Disney children’s videos. (VHS)
Essentially, the Home would like to be able to improve the lifestyle of the children, to buy more food, clothing and pampers (which they need masses of and are hoping to get an incinerator for). They would also like to be able to undertake staff training and to employ more qualified staff. |
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Staff
Gloria Veira, Founding President
Robert Moo-Yong, President
Merdella Grant, Administrator
Mr Lloyd West - construction coordinator |
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Contact Us
Address: Westhaven Children’s Home for the Disabled/Western Regional Foundation for Disabled Children, Copse, Hanover, Jamaica
Telephone/Fax: +1 (876) 956 4912
The home does not have email access at present, so the best contact for donations, to offer help, or just to get some more information is Robert Moo Young |
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