Shirley Hanna motivates others
Published:Sunday | April 6, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Shanica Blair, Gleaner Writer
Since the 1970s, Dorothy Shirley Hanna has been making significant contributions to promoting Jamaican culture and improving the quality of the life of others in Jamaica, the diaspora and the global community.
Hanna is currently the executive director of Nice Time Productions Limited - a Jamaican-Spanish independent film production company that started 14 years ago.
A trained cosmetologist, Hanna's company focuses mostly on documentaries, and was the brainchild of a partnership between her and Fernando Garcia, a Spanish producer who came to Jamaica to do an album. Hanna told Outlook that it was while doing a transformational workshop that she met Garcia after she was asked to facilitate him on his project.
Since starting the company, they have done recordings with a number of Jamaican artistes, after which they ventured into documentaries. Their first was, Why do Jamaicans run so fast? which chronicles the accomplishments of Jamaican athletes in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This was followed by Hit me with music, which documented the emergence of Jamaica' s urban music.
Skills instrumental
Hanna's skills and expertise were very instrumental in commencing and completing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Correctional Services in the Ministry of National Security, which led to the approval of the company's latest film, Songs of Redemption. A very powerful narrative, it chronicles the lives of several inmates in a unique music rehabilitation and training programme at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility.
"Before the Nice Time crew started the journey of this film, I used to think that prison life was over there. It was not part of my personal space," she told Outlook. "However, after the intensive meeting and negotiations with officials at the Ministry of National Security and the Department of Correctional Services and numerous prison visits, I began to see young men and youths who looked like my own children. As a patriotic Jamaican, I wanted to help and specific themes started to unfold - healing, hope, love, forgiveness, friendship, transformation, rehabilitation, empowerment."
She continued, "Until we clean up the prisons, I don't think we are going clean up the crime. We all love Jamaica and we need to come together in one voice and do some healing. I think that the word we need to use a lot in Jamaica is 'healing', because I think the people who commit crime need healing, and so do the victims. We need to start taking more care of the children here and be our brother's keeper, because it takes a village to raise a child. We need to get our children's voices to start speaking instead of being intimidated, and tell us what they want their world to look like," Hanna added.
Hanna's childhood was not unlike that of most Jamaican children. Her father was a salesman who was married to her mother who played the role of the dutiful wife and caring mother until she died when Hanna was just 17 years old. After her death, Hanna vowed that, when she had children, she would give of herself like her mother did to her children and other children around her.
'We need to stop talking about it and do something about it,' is the mantra of this life coach, business entrepreneur and leader who has sought to give of her life to serve others out of love for her country. "That is how I live my life, I don't work on problems, I participate in solutions. I live with the positive, I live that all things are possible and that there is always another way," she said.
Hanna is a past president of the The Queen's School Parent Teachers' Association, a mother of two and grandmother of two. She has successfully led and managed the First World Hunger Project in Jamaica in 1990 and was one of the most active volunteers in the inaugural Meet the People programme that was launched by the Jamaica Tourist Board in 1968 - an initiative that allowed citizens to act as ambassadors to create cultural and enjoyable experiences for visitors to Jamaica.
"I love my country, which is why back in the '70s, I started doing what I could. I joined the Meet the People programme and I volunteered to meet tourists who came to Jamaica and entertained them in my home. Out of doing that, I joined the Norwegian Caribbean lines as a volunteer for the Jamaica Tourist Board and went on the cruise to talk to tourists about Jamaica. The ship surprised me and gave me an award for being a very active person and sharing my home and family," recalled Hanna.
She told Outlook that her life's work is to motivate people and leave a legacy for others to inherit.
"Words and thoughts are powerful, I am very mindful of my thoughts and what I say, and I encourage people to strive to do the same. I don't use negative words. You will never hear me use words such as 'I can't', or 'poor me'. I am really a motivational speaker and I empower people to be the best and fulfil our purposes in life," she continued.