Spokesperson for Fathers Inc, Herbert Gayle, said the organisation was now raising funds to make the centre a reality.
"Our first contribution into the account was $25,000 from the Forever Young Health Expo earlier this year," said Gayle. "We really appreciated this because we were able to put it in our account specifically for the resource centre."
Fathers inc charity
Fathers Inc was the charity chosen by media personality Donna Hope to receive the prize after she won the 'Celebrity Design-a-Drink Challenge', a major highlight of the yearly Forever Young expo.
Fathers Inc is a non-governmental organisation established in 1991 to address negative stereotypes of Jamaican fathers. Workshops and awards are offered to support men in becoming caring, committed and responsible parents. One of the organisation's main goals is to change the image of fathers as merely uninvolved providers of material goods. Both fathers and men who are anticipating becoming fathers are incorporated into the organisation's activities.
According to Gayle, the organisation has added $14,000 to the prize received so far but that is a drop in the bucket towards reaching the $1-million mark that the resource centre will cost. The initiative is geared towards providing counselling services and educational materials to help fathers become better parents.
"We have broken the cost down into small sums and we are approaching the private sector to help fund it. We are hoping to get it done before 2009 Father's Day," said Gayle. "We especially will need funding with maintenance as it will cost about $300,000 monthly to keep it going."
According to UNICEF's 2000 Situation Assessment and Analysis of Jamaican Children and their Families, about half of all children under the age of six live with their fathers and four out of five fathers support their children financially.
"We want to look at male participation in the home, teaching men how to be present as it is so important for them to be there," said Gayle.
Essential work
It is this essential work, said Hope, that led to her choosing the organisation for the prize.
"I have a great concern about parenting in Jamaica and I know of the tremendous work that Fathers Inc is doing to empower our men to relate better with their children," said Hope.
"I was happy to be part of the challenge ... . I got the opportunity to come up with a very healthy drink, as well as contribute to an organisation with great needs. I would do it again," said Hope.
The gesture has served as encouragement to Fathers Inc. Gayle is optimistic that other organisations will follow the lead of the Forever Young organisers and contribute to Fathers Inc.
