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Six decades of work with J’can womenAT THE end of the second world war, in May 1944, Lady Molly Huggins, wife of the then Governor of Jamaica, invited a group of local women to prepare for the launch of the Jamaica Federation of Women. Lady Huggins was responding to the need to ‘bring together' women who were often isolated, to cut across all class distinctions and solidify women from all over the country under one organisational umbrella with the slogan ‘For our Homes and our Country’.The JFW was launched at King’s House on July 18,1944. The principal aim of the federation was to improve the quality of life within the family through improvement of women’s conditions and attitudes. The JFW focused onwomen especially from the rural parishes and encouraged the formation of branches at the local level. Branch membership increased rapidly in the early years and the women of the rural communities became heavily involved in many and varied group projects covering all aspects of family life. Women were trained in food preservation, cooking, crafts, personal hygiene, childcare, family relations and marketable skills training such as sewing and agriculture, thus unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit.In 1949 mass weddings and clothing schemes were introduced. On September 21, 1949 the first wedding took place at the Kingston City Mission, April 18,1950 at theWesleyan Church in Morant Bay and August 13,1950 at the Ridgemont United Church in Manchester with Lady Huggins in attendance. The clothing scheme was a joint effort of the Jamaica Women’s League and the Jamaica Federation of Women. Twenty thousand (20,000) school children were supplied with material for uniforms.HUGGINS’ SUCCESSORLady Huggins left Jamaica in 1950 and Lady Sylvia Foot succeeded her as president. During the period there was a change in structure with the appointment of a chairman,CONTINUES ON C7
Newspaper Details
Kingston Gleaner
Kingston, Kingston, JM
Sat, Jul 24, 2004
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Susun W.
USA 13 Feb 2019
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