By Latonya Linton
JAMAICA / CANADA – Lamar Douglas made history last year as one of four Jamaican farmers with disabilities selected for the Canadian Farm Work Programme, spent six months in Ontario, from June 12 to December 9, before returning home.
Douglas is a former student of the Abilities Foundation where she spent two years studying housekeeping and horticulture while working as a full-time housekeeper, also learned to read, and write application and job letters while at the institution.
“At ‘Abilities’, based on the course that I did, they taught us how to deal with conflict in the workplace, how to operate within the workplace, and other workplace attitudes that anyone in a workplace should have,” she tells JIS News.
“I didn’t even know that if you’re sick or whatever [else you’re experiencing], you were supposed to call your manager [or] supervisor and let them know. All of those were taught, because it was on our learner guide that we got from HEART/NSTA Trust,” she adds. Douglas informs that during the horticulture course, she learnt how to grow a plant, prepare the land and reap it, as well as the soil types for various cultivations.
“It was an exciting one. It was interesting. I learned how to set up the irrigation system, and different types of farming techniques apart from just digging into the ground and putting [in the plant],” she further points out. Douglas tells JIS News that her passion for farming dates back to before her time at the Abilities Foundation.
“At my workplace, there was an empty space, and I used it up planting some callaloo and [other things] that I could plant. I am from the rural area where farming is ‘the thing’… so I’m kind of used to it. I really love farming,” she says.
While working at her job at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in New Haven, St. Andrew, Douglas received a text message from her former teacher querying whether she would be interested in joining the overseas farmwork programme.
“It was always my dream to get that experience, so I gladly said ‘yes’. The process was done and there I was in Canada. I wondered at times if I was just dreaming but, yes, it was a reality,” she points out.
Upon arriving at the farm she was deployed to in Ontario, Douglas says she was shown what would be her home for the next six months.
“Being a Jamaican… I was shocked [that] our home looked totally different; but it was just a smaller [version] of what we have in Jamaica,” she points out.
Douglas says she met other Jamaicans when she arrived who assisted with, among other things, meal preparations.
“[So] we got dinner and we got our rest. [In] the morning [we went] to the office for paperwork and, thereafter, the bank to open our account. Shortly after that, we started working,” she adds.
Douglas says she was able to adapt and manage in her new environment, pointing out that the farm where she worked primarily cultivated vegetables.
“We had to get rid of the weeds from the vegetables. During the latter part of our time there, from about October, we were grading carrots, so we had to be working on a conveyor belt where we picked out the bad carrots or the bigger carrots from the small carrots,” she explains.
Douglas tells JIS News that she initially experienced challenges with work involving strawberries, “because we had to bend very low to clean the strawberries, and I really ended up with some back pains… but after that, I was okay”.
She describes her initial experience with the farmwork programme as “mixed”, due to working in a culturally diverse environment that included nationals from countries other than Jamaica.
“We also had Indians who couldn’t understand us, and we couldn’t understand them at times, so that was a little barrier there, where language is concerned. Once we were doing the right thing, our Field Manager would always gives us a ‘thumbs up’ and say, ‘good job’, or he would pat us on our shoulders and say, ‘good job’. So that gave me a little hope that I will be back,” Douglas says.
She also learnt how to manage her time, pointing out that “[when you’re] working for someone, you’re working for your money [so] you can’t fool around; hard work and dedication are the keys to success”.
Douglas further underscores the importance of working hard and respecting the persons with whom one interacts.
“No matter what, even if they don’t show you… the love and respect, you give them that and it will go a long way,” she states.
Douglas is now preparing to return to Canada to work under the programme, after receiving a call to do her medical.
She expresses a desire to see more young Jamaicans afforded the opportunity to participate in the programme.
“Based on my area [in Jamaica] where I live, there are… people who feel like, ‘okay, persons just go to work and sit down and get money’. It’s not like that. You have to put out the work in order for you to gain,” Douglas underscores.
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