CAFFE clubs crumbling

AN initiative by election watchdog Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) to expose youngsters to the democratic process through school clubs is now struggling to sustain itself, following a severing of financial support from international donors. Democracy clubs in schools, which began in 2021, serves as a platform for fostering discussions among high school students on various aspects of Jamaican democracy, building on the involvement of scores of students in CAFFE’s election monitoring exercises since 2011. Launched with the assistance of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative aims to encourage students who are 18 years old to enrol on the national voters’ list while also preparing those who are over 17 years old to serve as CAFFE observers.

CAFFE Deputy Chairman Anton Thompson speaking to Jamaica Observer journalists at the observer group’s New Kingston offices last Thursday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

However, while providing an update on the state of the clubs during a Jamaica Observer Press Club last Thursday at CAFFE’s New Kingston office, the watchdog’s Deputy Chairman Anton Thompson shared that the initiative has seen a significant fall-off in participants, with only six of the initial 40 schools still active. “We launched this with some funding, so we were able to hire somebody to energise the schools, talk to them [the students], and arrange for them to meet,” said Thompson. He explained that the initiative’s struggle is further compounded by the lack of replacement leaders. “These activities in school require teacher leadership as well as student leadership... Once a teacher’s leadership is absent — and they’re often absent because they go to another job or they retire — then the project will not continue until somebody else is found,” he said, adding that in those instances a central coordinator is needed to ensure that the gaps are filled. “Not only do teachers move on from schools, but students move on, too. And so, obviously, if the club goes dormant for two years it’s pretty much extinct until you get replacements, then you have to start again. “But the schools that are active now tend to be very involved. We have an event planned for next week for them — an online event because they are all over the country. And so, essentially, we want to continue, and we are trying our best, too, if we can energise more schools to be involved,” he said. According to CAFFE, the annual budget for the clubs’ operation is $5 million. “The running of a club in a school is not necessarily a major financial burden for the school because you usually have provisions in your school budget for clubs, and it usually is not very expensive, depending on the type of club. However we want to provide support to ensure that the clubs are running at a level where the students are really benefiting — particularly in support in the way of material, research ideas, and things like that — so that the students can really benefit. That’s what we would want to do,” Thompson said. Underscoring that the majority of the organisation’s election observers are sixthform students, past Chairman Lloyd Barnett pressed that there is an urgency to restore the operation of the democracy clubs. “The school term start[ed] in September, and then [there were] exam preparations, and so the focus shifts; and next year we[‘ll] have a completely new set of people. It is very difficult to keep it sustained. You have to do all that you have done last year, the next year. Obviously we need more help because of the absence of a major part of our funding from international sources,” he said. Additionally, CAFFE Chair Grace Baston noted that the clubs are open to students of all grade levels, with the aim of preparing them to volunteer by the time they reach sixth form. Despite the drop in numbers, she remains optimistic about the future of the clubs. “It is the lack of funding that accounts for the fall-off in the number of active clubs. It’s as clear as that.. We hope to be able to attract the funding — and we don’t envision that it will be difficult to get those clubs up and running once we have the financial support,” said Baston.