Pryce-Maitland takes passion for community development to August Town
Published:Monday | March 20, 2023 | 1:02 AMSashana Small/ Staff Reporter
There is a special place in Dorothy Pryce-Maitland’s heart for the elderly and the youth. It’s a fondness that blossomed as she watched her mother and grandmother taking care of the most vulnerable in her native community of Rockfort, Kingston.
A young Pryce-Maitland was always eager to help out, and told The Gleaner that she was often described as the “eyeball” of her maternal role models.
“My mother and grandmother used to take in a whole heap a children when dem parents [abandon] dem and can’t help dem. And she do little selling, she bake, she do pastry, she do natural juices, she do ice cream, and she sell, she cook and feed all of us as children. She feed us as one family,” she recalled last week.
Seeing her mother, who was a woman of little means, making these kinds of sacrifices ignited a passion for community development in Pryce-Maitland. And in 1989, she established the first foundation, putting her on a path to become a community builder.
After moving to the nearby Harbour Heights, she said that she built a basic school out of plastic and cardboard to provide a centre for the disadvantaged children.
“I wanted to start a basic school for the little children dem who had nowhere to go, who were in the community – naked and half-naked – and mi start to gather dem in, and start that basic school,” she said. “Mi get di post dem and fence it off miself with cardboard and used plastic to cover the top so that rain nuh wet we. I started with four children first and then it [grew] to 18,” she said.
To support this venture, Pryce-Maitland said that she planted cash crops and would cook the produce from her farm for her students.
Her work in Harbour Heights connected her with other community builders in August Town, St Andrew, 25 years ago. She subsequently moved to that community and became part of a group that spearheaded the August Town Rise initiative, a social programme that caters to the elderly in August Town and surrounding areas.
“We went to [the Golden Age Home], and we went to some other homes in town go comb dem hair, bathe them, and so forth, and give what we can give,” she said.
The 65-year-old mother of two, who also serves as a justice of the peace and restorative justice officer in the often-volatile community, believes more needs to be done to highlight the good in August Town.
“ ... Crime get the biggest highlight more than we who are doing something positive,” she said.
Pryce-Maitland was among the August Town residents who excitedly greeted a group of students and staff from the neighbouring University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, who toured the community last Thursday. The tour is part of a series of activities to commemorate the university’s 75th anniversary.
Members of the university community were exposed to some of the projects that the institution has supported and initiated in the area, as well as historical and cultural sites such as the Bedward church, the Bedward healing stream, the Anglican Church, and reggae artiste Sizzla’s museum.
Angela Harris, community development programme manager at the The UWI, Mona Social Services, told The Gleaner that the initiative formed part of the The UWI and the UWI Community Film Project mandate of leading the social and economic transformation of underserved communities.
Twenty-year-old Javair Johnson from Goldsmith Villa in August Town acted as tour guide for the students. The UWI graduate benefited from the tour guide programme and geomapping organised by The UWI to serve the surrounding communities.
“When you think of the cost to go to university, first of all, and the fact that the university offers nine scholarships every year to persons from the community in whatever faculty you want to be a part of, that, in and of itself, alone is just fabulous.”
Raniel Thompson, a third-year history and journalism student, was visiting August Town for the first time. He said the tour changed his perspective of the community.
“A lot of persons would think that August Town is just known for violence, but on the tour this morning, we learnt about the cultural things, and persons who would have had an impact on the community,” he said. “That just goes to show that not [just bad things] come from this area.”