IN JAMAICA (A GOOD STORY): 21 y-o Seidg Rowe, a young volunteer on path to success despite setback....now a nursing student, she was recently selected for the Prime Minister's Youth Awardee for Excellence in Youth Service.

by JIS Tuesday, April 22, 2014 

SEIDG Rowe, a 21-year-old single mother and final year nursing student at the International University of the Caribbean (IUC), has for the past 10 years devoted herself to serving others.

SEIDG Rowe

It was, therefore, no surprise that she was recently selected for the Prime Minister's Youth Awardee for Excellence in Youth Service.

"I'm in love with volunteering... I don't see the change overnight but I know there are youths that look up to me so it's a motivation to continue," says Rowe, in an interview with JIS News.

Her years of service include coordinating health fairs for her childhood community of Rae Town; visiting and assisting the elderly at Golden Age homes; working with the Kingston Eastern Police Youth Club; and serving as assistant co-chair for the Caribbean District Committee of Service. She is also actively involved in her local church.

Rowe fondly recalls growing up in the inner-city as a time filled with fun and laughter. Life seemed to be going according to plan until she was 16-years-old and heard the words that no teen wants to hear, "you are pregnant".

She said: "I went to the doctor for just a general medical check-up and then to find out I was pregnant... I was like three months and two weeks along. It was kind of scary."

She was in shock and denial. Confused and with no help from the child's father, Rowe said she was even more determined to shine through the clouds of despair and self pity that seemed to be closing in on her.

Unable to continue attending high school, Rowe, with the support of her parents, enrolled in the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation which has a programme for adolescent mothers. The programme assists pregnant girls, 17 and under, to continue their secondary education. 

  

Looking back, she said the experience changed her outlook. "Before I got pregnant, I was like, 'things are going on for me so I don't need to pay much attention to school work'. I didn't like to study but I said a child is involved now, I have to get my subjects... I have to get focused now. I think that she (her child) motivates me to do more," Rowe said.

Her mother, Paulette Williams, a patient care assistant at the Kingston Public Hospital ( KPH ), says when she found out that Rowe was pregnant she was more than upset, especially since she had already paid for her to sit the CSEC Examinations. However, she still decided to give her a second chance.

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