Disabled Smithville woman launches charity for kids.
Cupid’s arrow misses many merchants
DAPHNE WILLIAMS, a disabled woman whose story of resourcefulness and ambition drew praise and charity last summer, has launched a children’s outreach foundation geared at assisting the needy in her hometown of Smithville.
The independent-minded 51-year-old, who was born with a badly formed hand with only thumb, endeared readers and viewers in a Gleaner interview as she displayed how she carries out daily tasks such as washing, writing, and sewing, using her feet for support.
A Sunday-school teacher at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Smithville, Williams said that her “special love for children” inspired her to start a foundation. Many children in the community who lacking basic items are now able to get support through her charitable venture.
Williams’ desire to pay forward benevolence to her fellow
Clarendonians has been fuelled by the outpouring of goodwill to her own crisis. Since last July’s newspaper interview, she has received six
sewing machines, among other gifts, in her bid to launch out with her fledgling business. She is now producing cushions and has big
plans to expand.
“They always say this one really touched their heart. I know whatever they have contributed, it will not be in vain,”Williams said of the Gleaner story.
Community folk have been key to Williams’ outreach, helping out big and small.
“Some people in the community help me in whatever way they can. Some donate a soap, a tissue or any little thing,” Williams said.
“God has always provided, and it is out of what God has provided that I am able to share with these children, to see that they are encouraged and that they are loved,” she said.
With distance learning eclipsing face-to-face classes as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cripple the education sector, Williams lamented that many students in Smithville are left behind because they lack access to tablets or laptops. She has since arranged a team that goes into homes and teaches students who are not participating in virtual classes.
Smithville’s woes are not unique and mirror those that have complicated instruction and caused learning loss right across the country. Two hundred and fifty schools have reopened since November 2020, but at least 12 have shuttered doors in recent weeks because of new coronavirus infections.
“Many of them don’t have access to online [learning] here, so many of them are not able to log on to their lesson, so we have to just use charts, paper, and cards to demonstrate and teach them,” Williams told The Gleaner.
Carlene Miller Thompson, a teacher, is one of the members of Williams’ team. She described the good Samaritan as a go-getter, adding that the future of the foundation was bright.
“It’s a very good initiative and it will bring about motivation to young people, children and community members.
“Children are gravitating towards what she is doing, and it will go much further than just being at Smithville,” she said.
WHILE MANY couples flooded St Elizabeth beaches on Sunday, freelance photographer Nigel Jones traipsed around scouting for couples he could snap up with his camera.
For the first time, Jones travelled from Santa Cruz to Alligator Pond on Valentine’s Day hoping to make extra cash amid blighted earnings from COVID-19.
After two hours of walking between Oswald Seafood Restaurant and Bar and Little Ochie, the photographer had had no luck.
“When I approach people, they say they are not interested, but I don’t know how the rest of the day is going to go,” said the photographer of 30 years.
Valentine’s Day was a popular wedding day option in former
years, said Jones, but the coronavirus outbreak, which emerged in Jamaica last March, has put paid to many traditions.
“The economy going down,” a
glum Jones said.
Rose sales brought thorns to flower vendors on Waterloo Road in New Kingston.
A hawker who goes by the
moniker Nico said that Valentine’s sales in 2020 were far better than this year’s.
“We usually get the bulk of our sales in the night. When di couple dem a go home, dem would stop and buy,” he said, explaining that the 8 p.m. curfew had changed shopping patterns. Now, he said, commuters are only interested in rushing home.
“Normally when it a touch Valentine’s Day, sales would come in from all angles,” said Nico.
Red roses are hard to find and even harder to buy, he added.
Instead of the flush of red roses that would normally line sidewalks, the few vendors that were present on Saturday afternoon had mainly white, yellow, purple, and pink varieties.
COVID-19 has changed the playing field not just for roadside sellers, but for major florists, too.
Chief executive officer of Shields & Shields, Geoffrey Shields, explained that the supply chain for rose imports had been affected from increasingly unreliable flights into the island. Jamaica mainly imports roses from Colombia and Ecuador, he said.
“The farms are closed because of COVID, so the production is down, so they’re just picking up back,”Shields told The Gleaner.
Though roses are three times more expensive than last year, because of scarcity and foreign exchange, he said the store has not increased its prices because of considerations for the buyers.
“This year is one of the worst years,” said the florist, who has been operating Shields & Shields for 38 years.
Profit projections for the season are down by at least a third, he said.
Owner of La-Kay’s Bride in HalfWay Tree, Kay Williams, said she has not sold or rented any dresses this year.
“Usually I would be renting Valentine’s dresses and jumpsuits, but there is no ball or dinner happening now,” she said.
The shop she has been operating for 24 years has been closed for weeks.
This year, the Stage Four cancer patient sat along Constant Spring Road selling gift baskets she had made at a significantly cheaper price in hopes of finding dinner.