CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 42

On another page, in a list of questions, she
asked why her uncle raped her, and why she
was molested by the teenage girls in the home.
She told CARIMAC Times she had reported
the girls’ sexual behaviour to the staff, and
one of the girls retaliated by hitting her in the
eye. Norris said the staff members did nothing
except scold her attacker, and they did not
report the incident.
This only added to Norris’s desperate desire
to return to her family and friends. She, like
Mallory, eagerly showed her friends pictures
of those she held dear on Facebook, as well as
her own pictures.
In her messages, Norris wrote to a 21-yearold man. Their relationship was conflicting,
sometimes antagonistic, other times flirtatious
and sexual. But when he asked for a sexual
favour she disapproved of, she shunned him.
And the conversations ceased there.
To her friends at the home, she spoke excitedly
about past boyfriends she had who were same
age as she was. And before leaving, she told this
interviewer that she had a different boyfriend
who attended her high school, whom she longed
to see.
On the eve before her court date, and her official
release from Strathmore, Norris was brimming
with joy and bubbling with laughter. She danced
about the property, taking pictures with staff
and children she may never see again. She said
her experience at Strathmore had not been
too bad, and the staff had treated her well, but
“dem [they] shout too much.”
When asked what her plans were when she

returned home, Norris said she planned to
go out on the day of Christmas, but she also
planned to change her behaviour.
“When I go home, I’m thinking about to give
my life over to the Lord and just stop the ‘backanswering’ when people talk to me,” she said.
“I learnt that just when you listen, that’s the
best way… You get into less trouble when you
stay outta ‘friend and company’. My mommy
and daddy always tell me that.”
While Norris has a home to move on to, the
future for other children leaving the home
is questionable. Newton said it is a difficult
transition for both the staff and the children.
“It’s hard, ‘cause sometimes they get attached
to us so much and it is not easy to release them.
Sometimes Miss Crawford herself has to sit
them down and give them a talk-through of
what is going to come… It’s not easy, but she
tries her best to show them that, even though
they are leaving Strathmore, they will be still
taken care of.”
Is a home truly a home?
Some children, like Norris and Mallory, do not
stay very long. But for the children who stay,
Strathmore tries to be a home as much as it can.
It attempts to structure the lives of children
who were raised in dysfunctional homes. There
are 15 workers, most of whom are caregivers
split across working shifts. Crawford has seen
many children come and go in her 15 years at
Strathmore. She said all staff need certificates
in childcare and development, and they try to
raise the children as their own.

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