Women with Scars Limited committed to assisting women with childbearing needs
Published:Thursday | January 23, 2025 | 12:13 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
It was their life-changing experience at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), in Montego Bay, St James, where they were patients, that spurred Sharee Cridland and Janelle Stone to create ‘Women with Scars Limited,’ the western Jamaica-based charity foundation dedicated to providing essential care and emotional and psychological support to women facing medical challenges.
Cridland, a high school teacher, and Stone, an accounting professional, were both patients in CRH’s obstetrician ward for one and three months, respectively, in April 2023. During that time, they witnessed the severe needs some patients were facing and decided to do something to help.
“Usually you go to that ward for a short period. If you go for child-birth it was just for that period, but because of the extent of our stay, we saw that ladies would come in, they get no visitor, they do not have the necessary supplies because the hospital does not give out those stuff. Some were not able to change their clothing, and basic things like water supplies and toiletries, they did not have,” Cridland told The Gleaner. “We had to share with those without the necessaries ... other ladies on the ward had to share with them.”
Seeing the struggles being faced by the patients without a support system, Cridland and Stone decided that they needed to do something to make life easier for future patients with needs, and they decided to form the non-profit charitable foundation Women with Scars Limited.
After doing the preliminary work to get the charity properly established, the organisation was registered in November 2023 and promptly started assisting female patients on the obstetrics ward at CRH.
“Our work with those in need on that ward at the CRH centres around three pillars of support: providing essential care packages, offering emotional and psychological support, and building a network of compassionate outreach, ensuring we reach the women most in need,” said Cridland.
So far, the charity has a cadre of about 18 volunteers, but Cridland said with the help of the dedicated staff at the hospital, care is taken to ensure the proper distribution of benefits to those in need.
According to Stone, while the organisation has started its charitable work at the CRH, its ultimate vision is to extend the assistance of the organisation to patients in the other public hospitals in the region soon.
“We live in St James, the organisation is registered in St James, and the focus of our work is on patients in the CRH right now, but we are truly looking towards and hope to be assisting persons in the other public hospitals as soon as the resources allow,” said Stone.
Last Sunday, Kaila Tiner, a 12-year-old Jewish girl from New Jersey in the United States who was in Jamaica to celebrate her bat mitzvah, donated to the charity. Cridland and Stone are encouraging other people who can to also assist the charity through cash or kind.
Donations to the charity can be committed via email to womenwithscarslimited@yahoo.com or on Instagram @womenwithscars.
“If persons are not able to contribute financially, the organisation is more than willing to accept gifts of toiletriesa nd other things suitable for babies and their mothers,” said Stone. “We welcome all items that are crucial for both the mothers and their babies during their hospital stay and after being discharged.”