Rural Family Support Organization

The Rural Family Support Organization (RuFamSO) is a non-governmental organization dedicated to facilitating the best quality of life for families in Central Jamaica. It originally started at the Teenage Mothers' Project in 1993 to address the plight of teenagers at 'risk' because of early pregnancy. RuFamSO is an umbrella organization encompassing four components :
- The Roving Caregivers Program

me (RCP)
This is:
An informal Early Childhood Development Programme
>It is a community based home visiting model
>It target the birth to three years cohort
>It is a safety net for children who are denied any form of early stimulation and are generally exposed to inappropriate parenting practices. The RCP is being replicated in four eastern Caribbean islands (St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada) and the government of Belize has also adopted this programme.

- Male Adolescent Programme (MAP)
MAP is designed to equip adolescent males with marketable skills. It offers vocational/technical training in the following areas
>Woodwork
>Barbering
>Entrepreneurial Training
MAP focuses on the total development of adolescents -it offers training in:
>Literacy and Numeracy
>Health and Family Life Education
>Reproductive Health Education
>Guidance and Counseling
MAP produces play and learn material for children in Early Childhood institutions

-HEART/NTA Training Programme
This component offers training in the following skill areas
>Garment Construction
>Housekeeping
>Commercial Food Preparation
>Early Childhood Education

- Clarendon Youth Development Programme (CYDP)
This component acts as a safety net for school drop outs (10-14 years) from the primary schools who fail to gain entry into the high schools because of their low level of literacy and numeracy skills. It works collaboratively with a number of schools conducting sessions in Health and Family Life Education and Guidance and Counseling. A common thread links the four components under the RuFamSO umbrella: a commitment to nurture each participant to become a well rounded individual, thus the holistic approach to training.