A simple hug can change a child – Sophia Drop-In Center Supervisor, Norma Hamilton

– Women learn to listen to your children.

– Empower our children.

– Care, reach out and love our children.

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, March 7, 2019

“I am proud of the children that left the Drop-In Centre … There are children, who would have become nurses, teachers, even a paramedic and there is one presently studying to become an Agronomist. We have different careers and I am proud of them, some I sent to be trained at the Kuru Kuru Training Centre and they are doing their own jobs Hamilton said.

As house mother, Norma Hamilton who cares for children exposed to all sorts of abuse. She is Supervisor of Sophia Drop-In Centre. According to Norma her main priority is to ensure that the children housed at the facility, receive the necessary love, care and attention they need.

“We have children who are there with lots and lots of problems, because of abuse, because of so many things we take for granted as parents. As their support, you have to be an individual that is cohesive, tolerant, patient and kind so you can help them to be what they want to be, help them to develop self-esteem,” Hamilton said.

She has been in the profession for more than five years and emphasised that her job demands a positive personality and a strong mindset.

“For example, when we have a new intake, a child might throw tantrums and display all sorts of behaviour. There are children who may have lived an abusive life and try to bring it into our domain and the challenge is to get that child to be comfortable and understand that they are in a different environment and that there are rules and regulations they must abide by.”

Norma added that her greatest accomplishment is the reward of seeing the children leave the centre emotionally whole and excelling in rewarding careers.

Her advice to mothers, “love your children, remember we made them and we have to nurture them. A parent must listen to their children. Do not talk down to your children, but rather talk with them because they can learn so much. Children at the Centre need their family; we are here to help but do not stay away from your children, reach out to them, love them, care for them because they are yours.”

“I am a people person and I love what I do at the Sophia Drop-In Centre,” is how Norma Hamilton describes herself and what she does.

Ayana George.

Images: Adrian Persaud.