IN RURAL JAMAICA: Boy, 13, reaps ganja to support self.... Boy neglected by mom forced into illegal activity to survive....But I have to go ganja bush, Miss. Because anytime she (boy's mom) cook she only give it to the other two children them and don't look pon me, Miss."

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, October 19, 2014    

IN a desperate bid to survive, a boy in rural Jamaica has turned to working in ganja fields, reaping the illegal weed in order to buy his meals.

But while his actions would be considered illegal and he could have been arrested and later imprisoned if the police had caught him, the lad said that he had no choice.

"My mother don't treat me good, Miss," he told the Jamaica Observer in an interview days ago.

"She do me whole heap of things, Miss, like she don't give me any food for two days straight. I have to be going to ganja bush to pick weed and then she cuss mi 'cause she don't want me to go there. But I have to go ganja bush, Miss. Because anytime she cook she only give it to the other two children them and don't look pon me, Miss."

A relative of the child confirmed that he has in fact been left to fend for himself.

"His parents do not care," the relative stated. "He has no birth certificate, no vaccination paper, no baptismal paper, has to fend for himself, and is dirty all the time. This child has to fend for himself to eat, wash his own clothes and walk on the road daily."

It is a situation that has affected the boy psychologically.

"I feel bad because I was the only one in the field and everybody else a pure big man," he stated. more