Buju Banton Foundation, Sunbeam Boys Home partnership long in the making

Banton, one of Reggae’s iconic figures, declared Sunday after winning the 2020 Jamaica Festival Song competition that he’ll be donating his $3 million prize money to the Spring Village road-based children’s home located three miles east of Old Harbour town in St Catherine.

Banton recently paid a courtesy visit to the home and gave his commitment to support the them. And the Reggae singer was true to his words saying: “I want to congratulate the true winners tonight.  Everyone who participated in this competition: you’re all winners.  I was happy to share the stage with you all.  But for me the true winners tonight are the Sunbeam Boys Home.”

Upon hearing Banton’s declaration, Whitley said he wasn’t surprised.

“The Buju Banton Foundation has joined with us to help create a self-sustaining social enterprise model which would see the home able to fund itself through an agriculture programme, and also to assist with the education and training of the wards,” Whitley revealed to Old Harbour News in an interview Monday.

He said the foundation has been in dialogue with them for several months to determine the best approach.

The boys’ home has been in existence for 43 years now. It has transformed the lives of many of Jamaica’s most vulnerable males, with some able to matriculate into top universities on the island.

Over these years, they have managed to keep their doors open through private donors, despite many setbacks caused by burglary, fluctuating financial aid and other factors.

But with the Buju Banton Foundation committed to a long-term partnership, brighter days could be on the horizon for the home which caters for close to 60 boys.

“There needs to be an ongoing programme of educational support for the young men, and it is very expensive to do so,” Whitley, who bears the title of superintendent, contends. “We are talking about young men, who at 15 or 16 years old, who are not yet able to adjust socially; they’re performing below grade level at school, so there has to be precise engagement to get them to be able to become worthwhile and employable.”

In order to achieve many of its core objectives, the home’s chief accountable officer said engaging the full-time services of specialists such a psychologist among other technical support personnel are paramount, as many of the boys entering their care are severely traumatized and mentally scarred.

And it is precisely with this in mind why they are optimistic now that Banton’s charitable arm is on board.

“The holistic development of Sunbeam is farfetched and very, very wide in terms of its philosophy. One of the things we find is that we sometime measure success with educational achievement, and some of the times it is not the best way to measure success especially in a children’s home. For example: a young man may come to you at 15 can’t read, is cursing bad words, is stealing and is hopeless. Now if you are able through the integrated approach, meaning spiritual, social, emotional, psycho-social, psychological, all of those to get him to by 18 to have a new perspective on life, then that is success,” said Whitley who has been in charge of the facility for more than 10 years.

“So he may not get to the university, but what you have done, you have get him to recognize that he has a purpose, he can go back to school, he may not even being able to read at 18, but at least the perspective that he had, the hopeless perspective and the pursuit of a criminal lifestyle, you have gotten him to change path, and that is the type of success we always have.”

As farfetched as it may seems, the objectives are doable and achievable, particularly with sustained support from organisations such as the Buju Banton Foundation.

Already the management of the home is looking to resuscitate aspects of its agriculture programme. A green house is already in place, Whitley said, while the feasibility of an egg farming venture is presently being assessed.