Former state ward wants to be a social worker

Eighteen-year-old Sayeed Campbell has known rejection and hardship from before he could even walk.

Abandoned at just two months old and raised across several children's homes, Sayeed has seen the rougher side of life in state care. He said in moving from home to home, trauma and loneliness were constants.

"When I was in state care, CPFSA (Child Protection and Family Services Agency) had a programme called Take a Child Home for Christmas, and every time I see wards like myself going to families, I would question 'Sayeed, when is your time?' I always felt left out. I never really had anybody. I was always trying to suck up my pain by smiling and making everybody happy, but deep down I was really hurt," he said. A glimmer of hope came when he attended Nain High School in St Elizabeth, where he built friendships that became his first real support system. Now he's determined to turn his pain into purpose.

"This year I graduated with five CSEC subjects with the intention to start the journey at NCU (Northern Caribbean University) to become a social worker," he said proudly, determined to help others like him.

"As a former ward of the state, I understand the stigma of wards, people call us thieves and criminals. I know what it feels like to have sleepless nights. You want something to eat and you have to eat what is provided even when that is not what you feel for, but still have to be grateful," he said.

But Sayeed said that life has been throwing him curveballs since he aged out of the system, potentially derailing his dreams. When the CPFSA contacted his parents as part of its reintegration efforts, he briefly reunited with his mother in St Thomas, but the relationship quickly soured.

"That's when I started to going back to church as a coping mechanism because I used it to be away from state care, to build a connection with God and to strengthen my mindset," he said. After years of searching for parental love, he's accepted that he might never receive it.

"I was very suicidal. I was bullied for not knowing my mother or father. But eventually I decided that I don't need them because if they were interested, they would try their utmost best to find me. When I found her this year and she was not interested, I saw that if I needed her then and she was not there, I don't need her now," he said.

But his struggles didn't stop there. On August 17, he was arrested and charged with destruction of property and simple larceny after taking money from a woman who had offered him a place to stay. He admitted that he took $2,000 from the woman as he had fallen on hard times. After spending over a month behind bars, he was released when his uncle and church members pooled resources to repay the woman. Still, the experience cost him.

"While I was incarcerated, I missed the opportunity to start university for the fall semester, so now I am reapplying. But I am homeless and unemployed," he revealed. Since his release, Sayeed said he has been sleeping on the streets, using water he catches in bottles to wash his face and stay clean.

"When you in state care you haffi learn certain things fi survive. I wipe out my arms and use my spray so I don't smell bad. I don't sleep in the nights but I might doze off for a bit," he said. "Dem say if you want good, yuh nose haffi run, but my nose a run too long fi this good. I'm looking to be very progressive, a young man with bright future and a promising mindset." He hopes to start NCU in January.

"I am reaching out for help because my only dream is to become a social worker. I can empathise and sympathise with people who are experiencing that situation; that's why I applied to NCU," he said.

"Going forward, my goal is to start a healthy family of my own, one that I can live for. I just want to prove to them that I can be a better parent and a better person."