Jamaica’s Child Development Agency Providing Counselling Following Deaths Of Children

By E. Hartman Reckord
JIS Contributing Writer 

KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 29 (JIS) — The Child Development Agency (CDA) is providing counselling to grieving families and students following the deaths of 13-year-old J’Quan Forbes and three-year- old Lashaunie Thomas earlier this week.

Chief Executive Officer of the CDA, Rosalee Gage Grey, said the agency’s first responders have been working with other counsellors from the Victim Support Unit and the police to offer support to the families and classmates of the children.

She was speaking at a Think Tank held on April 27 at the Jamaica Information Service’s (JIS) head office in Kingston to outline activities for Child Month in May.

“We will continue to work with other stakeholders and we seek to provide some support. We went to the schools where the children attended. The families are really distraught at this time,” she said.

The CDA Chief Executive Officer, in the meantime, is calling on citizens to help in protecting the nation’s children.

“As the agency responsible for safeguarding our children, we want to support and garner the help of each citizen as we continue the fight to protect our children,” she said.

Mrs. Gage Grey said Jamaicans must celebrate children and “look at them as special gems that the Lord has provided for us. Each child is our children.”

Child Month is being celebrated under the theme: ‘Healthy Children Build a Stronger Nation’.