Freeport News Reporter
Realizing the challenges new teen mothers may face when supplying their babies with the necessary resources, The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) yesterday donated much-needed supplies to students of the Providing Access to Continued Education (P.A.C.E.) program at the Haven School .
P.A.C.E. facility located at Tripp Circle falls under the umbrella of three ministries — Health, Social Services and Education — and caters to the needs of female students and their infants.
School Principal Shirlee Butler, said the donation means a great deal to the centre as it gives the girls the essentials needed to start taking care of their babies and themselves properly.
" We are a school foremost, providing a place for the girls to come while they are pregnant. We offer a full curriculum of high school subjects and after they have had their babies they go back to main- stream schools," she explained.
"They are also able to bring their babies here to the nursery from 9 a.m to 3 p.m and they are provided with full health care from the clinic attached to the school operated by the Ministry of Health."
With the downturn in the economy and the students being so young, Butler said that many of them do not have the things that they need.
'This donation is a tremendous help to the girls who will have something to get started with when they have their babies."
GBPA Director of Community Relations, Geneva Rutherford said that their organization is on-board with assisting the PACE program, in particular to provide the mothers with additional help.
"We are keen to do this because we know that economic conditions being what they are, a lot of parents are not able and a lot of the girls may have a specific need so it is among other things for us to offer this type of help to the program."
Program Administrator Hildreth Clark was appreciative for the donation and noted that at this time the school and program is financially strapped. She made an earnest appeal to the general public to lend their assistance in whatever way they could, so that the program would be able to continue.
"We are also overwhelmed in the nursery with 16 kids. We have to provide feeding for them and we are expecting four more so we desperately need pampers, diapers, food, cereal or whatever the public can give. We do not turn these kids away and we try to provide health care for all.
The GBPA also supplied material for a new sign for the centre that was in dire need of repair. Butler thanked artist, Ken Heslop who volunteered his free time to repaint the sign.
