July 2, 2025 • 48 mins
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The transformative power of arts-based intervention for vulnerable youth takes center stage in this compelling conversation with Clarine Cave, founder of Partners That Care International in Barbados. What began as a personal journey through sports, military service, and community development has blossomed into a life-changing mission serving at-risk adolescents and food-insecure families across the island.
Stepping into the heart of Barbados' educational challenges, Clarine shares the remarkable story behind her organization's innovative 3MD (Make Music Make a Difference) program. This two-year scholarship initiative uses musical instruction as a vehicle for profound behavioral change, teaching vulnerable teens aged 13-16 to identify emotions, regulate responses, and develop interpersonal skills through collaborative band experiences. The results speak volumes: "The children we get at the beginning of this program are unidentifiable at the end," Clarine observes.
Beyond musical transformation, Partners That Care tackles food insecurity through its Summer Fiesta program, providing essential hampers to families during school breaks when government meal subsidies aren't available.
While welcoming youth of all backgrounds without religious requirements, the organization's leadership approaches challenges with unwavering spiritual conviction. "If it's too big for you to handle, then it is a God project," Clarine explains, offering encouragement to listeners contemplating their own seemingly impossible dreams.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Grantley Martelly (00:09):
Welcome to Above the Noise, a podcast at
the intersection of faith, raceand reconciliation, and I'm your
host Gr antley, Martelly.
So welcome back to Above theNoise Faith, race and
Reconciliation.
My guest today is Ms.
(00:30):
Clarine Cave, from Partnersthat Care International on the
island of Barbados, lookingforward to our conversation
together and I know you're goingto enjoy it through the work
that she and her team are doingthere.
So, Clarine, welcome to Abovethe Noise.
Clarine Cave (00:47):
Thank you for having me.
It's great to be here.
Grantley Martelly (00:52):
Introduce yourself to our guests.
Tell them who you are, whereyou live, a little bit about you
and your family.
Clarine Cave (01:00):
Well, like I said, my name is Clarine or Clarine
Cave.
A lot of Americans call meClarine because it's the short A
and not Clarine with the long A.
Grantley Martelly (01:12):
Which do you prefer?
Clarine Cave (01:14):
It doesn't matter, it really doesn't.
Grantley Martelly (01:17):
I can go back to my bedroom and call you
Clarine if you want me to Right,so Clarine is good, okay, good
soClarine is good, okay, I am a
mother of five.
Clarine Cave (01:32):
I've been married, for December coming will be 30
years, wow and we live here onthe island of Barbados,
beautiful Barbados.
Well, it's raining outside now,but it's usually sunny all year
round.
Um, I am a very active and avidrunner.
I love sports and specificallyathletics, and I love the Lord,
(01:55):
my faith journey.
I grew up in church.
I like to tell people my storyof being at church more often as
a child than I thought I shouldbe, but it wasn't one specific
church, so my story goes back.
I was born by a Dominican parent.
My mom is from Dominica.
(02:15):
Most of my siblings not mostall of my siblings are from
Dominica.
So when my mom came here andshe had me, I'm born to a
Dominican mom and a Barbadiandad.
So I got christened in theAnglican church at St Michael's
Cathedral.
I then, in my growing up, Istarted going to the Catholic
(02:39):
church because my mom wasCatholic, and I started doing
First Communion classes.
There's confirmation of FirstCommunion, so I did First
Communion classes on Saturdaysand then my aunt moved here from
the UK and I was living withher and my grandmother and in
(02:59):
living with them she went tochurch at the Adventist Church
and therefore I used to go tochurch on Saturday at the
Adventist church and then onSunday at the Catholic church
until I decided, okay, I wantedto make a decision for the Lord
when I was about 11, and I gotbaptized into the Adventist
(03:21):
church.
I spent most of my teenage yearswithin the Adventist church and
, again, you want that littlerebellious streak in your
teenage years.
You want to do what you want todo, and that led me then to my
husband, who, him and I, thengot baptized into the Wesleyan
(03:42):
church, and so we've been onthis journey.
But my desire and my hunger hasalways been for the things of
God and I think that started toopen up when I started doing
those First Communion classeswithin the Catholic Church and
it started to grow as I startedto read the quarterly and so
forth as a young child coming upin the Adventist church.
(04:05):
But I always piqued my interestto want to know more about God.
Okay, so my journey thendeveloped a thirst or a hunger
for the things of God and Istarted going to the Adventist
church on Saturdays and Catholicchurch on Sundays, and I've
(04:26):
always had this appetite to wantto know more.
To the Adventist church onSaturdays and Catholic church on
Sundays, and I've always hadthis appetite to want to know
more.
And my journey then brought meto where I am now, just seeking
out the things of God.
You know, I love the Lord withall my heart.
I just want to do what he wantsme to do, and so my journey has
been that of coming through thedifferent phases or the
(04:49):
different churches.
So I am well-churched, going tothe different churches and so
forth, and I really appreciatethe journey that I've been on.
Grantley Martelly (05:03):
So you got through the church part to
actually coming to the point ofwanting to develop your
relationship with God and live alife he wants you to live,
which is not always the samething.
That's why I made thatdistinction.
Clarine Cave (05:18):
Exactly.
Grantley Martelly (05:19):
Sometimes you can do the church thing and
never really find a relationshipwith God.
Once you find a relationshipwith God, it changes everything.
So let's talk about yourprofessional journey.
Were you always in non-profitwork or where did you start out?
Clarine Cave (05:35):
My background initially was sports.
I was a professional athlete,one of Barbra's first
professional athletes, if youwant to put it that way I was in
that grouping.
That started the Barbados sportsprogram back in 1991.
And I was a distance athleteand a thrower.
(05:58):
I threw javelin representingthe Barbados Defense Force as
well as my country, representingthe Barber's Defense Force as
well as my country, and that waswhere my professional journey
started.
I was 19 at the time, went onfrom there to do administration.
(06:18):
Well, I became a full-timesoldier after the sports program
.
Leg was almost coming to an endbecause I did not pursue an
athletic scholarship for varyingreasons I wanted to stay here
and, in doing so, join the armyfull-time.
(06:39):
In doing that I then realizedthat you know, this is good for
the discipline and all that.
So I broke my contract.
Five years after I enlisted Ibroke my contract and I pursued
then a Korean administrationthat started within the army.
(07:02):
But I continued that pursuituntil the desire within me to
help people started to grow more.
There was always this nigglingthat I could help.
If I can help people, whatwould I do?
What would I do?
And it is in those years, thoseinitial years, that I thought
OK, I'll start studyingpsychology.
(07:22):
I studied that and then I wenton to do my associate degree in
psychology.
I did well, that was atBarbados Community College.
And then I did somecertification courses.
I did guidance and counseling,gender and development studies.
(07:45):
I also did certification ininternational health.
So this took me down the path ofgoing into HIV and AIDS and
that's where I started to lookat doing programming work.
I was part of a team that wewrote proposals for funding and
stuff like that and weimplemented programs within the
(08:08):
community more based towardssensitization of the HIV AIDS.
At the time the company had acharity leg of it and I was
given the task of managing thecharity.
And that's how my desire thenfor charity work started to grow
(08:30):
, because I thought of myselfthen being able to facilitate
what I wanted to do, which wasmy love for the performing arts
and helping others, because Idid not want to be a
psychologist sitting behind adesk and seeing people every day
.
I wanted to be the boots on theground.
I did not want to be as much asI'm going to qualify guidance
(08:55):
counselor.
I did not want to be a guidancecounselor sitting behind a desk
every day, just seeing you knowpeople or seeing students.
So I wanted to marry my twoloves, which was my love for the
performing arts and my love forpsychology, and that led me
then to a space of wanting to doit for those who, more than
(09:19):
likely, were not going to beable to afford to pay for it.
Grantley Martelly (09:25):
So out of that desire, then, is that what
led you to start Partners thatCare?
How did you get to the pointwhere you say I want to form
this organization and who wasgoing to be your target audience
, and why did you do that?
Clarine Cave (09:40):
Well, my husband and I we have always again
because I guess together wecollectively did a lot of
helping in the community.
We would give out food hampersto random families along the way
, we would do things like adopta children's home or a senior
(10:00):
citizen's home and we would godown and cut the grass and paint
the building and do stuff likethat, and I realized that we
both like doing these things forour community.
You know, just lift the moraleand the spirits of people.
And after the company I wasworking for under the HIV AIDS
(10:22):
banner, after that companyclosed, I wanted to do something
and no matter how manyapplications I wrote, there was
nothing coming back.
There was just nothinghappening.
And your tendency is to say,okay, God, so everybody who was
working with me seems to havegone back out to work.
(10:42):
What's going on?
Why can't I, you know, getemployed?
And that happened for about ayear and a half after, you know,
the company closed.
And again, a bad idea wasn't myidea.
I'd like to take credit for it.
No, I wouldn't.
(11:02):
God impressed upon me to startPartners at Care International,
and the name is an interestingthing because my sister, who
lives in New York, worked for acompany called Partners in Care
and I thought Partners in Care,I don't want to be a partner in
care, I'm a partner that cares,so that's how the name came
(11:24):
about.
In Care, I'm a partner thatcares, so that's how the name
came about.
So I kind of piggyback on thatwhole partner that cares thing
and I want it to be a network ofpeople, not just to be a silo.
I wanted it to be a network ofpeople who shared a similar
interest because, again,Partners at Care International,
we help our community butthey're arms of it that we try
(11:48):
to facilitate.
So we came together with somepersons who had like mind, which
now make up the board, becausethey too were doing their own
little bits and pieces in theirsphere of influence, and
therefore we came together,formed the board and, under the
umbrella of Partners that CareInternational, we registered the
(12:09):
charity.
Grantley Martelly (12:10):
And what year was that?
Clarine Cave (12:12):
That was in 2014.
Grantley Martelly (12:15):
2014, okay.
So now you have Partners thatCare International, formally
formed as an organization.
So what are some of the thingsprograms that you focus on?
Where is your space that you'reworking in, and tell us about
some of the things that you'redoing?
Clarine Cave (12:33):
Sure what we did when we first started.
We worked with the Ministry ofEducation here in Barbados
because, again, my love is forthe arts.
I've been a dancer for many,many, many years and but I've
always known of dance from aministry perspective, even when
(12:54):
I stopped dancing, from asecular perspective.
Um, dance as a ministry fixesyou the individual first, before
you can minister to others, andtherefore I always felt like
this is a place where othersneed to know how to be able to
fix themselves using these arts,using music, using theater.
(13:17):
How can you get the help from amental perspective, from a
holistic and emotional, aspiritual perspective?
How can you get that help usingthe arts?
So I approached the Ministry ofEducation and we did two, three
years biannually.
(13:38):
We did a school's musicfestival.
They liked the idea.
We ran a event on the road withit and we had a biannual
competition within the schools,the secondary schools and the
primary schools.
What partners at CARE did wasthe developmental workshop and
the ministry took care of allthe music parts, all the other
(13:59):
logistics of that event.
So we would have that eventbiannually.
We did it three cycles and thenalso on the back of that, we
did our first food hamperdistribution.
Now, like I mentioned to youearlier, we would have done my
husband and I would have donefood hampers on a one-off, so we
(14:21):
would have maybe given away twoor three food hampers on a
one-off.
So we would have maybe givenaway two or three food hampers
on occasions.
But this was a situation nowwhere we were going to make it
even bigger and try to reachmore people.
So, because of my contacts,having done guidance and
counseling, I knew a lot of theguidance counselors in school
(14:44):
because we would have gone toschool together.
So I contacted some of them andasked them to look for students
within their schools who wouldhave been at the bottom of the
barrel, so to speak, and wouldneed the help most because, you
know, anybody at this point inlife could do with a hamper.
We don't mind getting free foodright, but I wanted to target
(15:07):
those who were at the bottom ofthe bottom right, those who were
finding it really reallychallenging to provide for their
children during the long breakof the summer.
Grantley Martelly (15:19):
So in 2015,.
Clarine Cave (15:20):
that's what we did .
We started our first summerfiesta as a charity, a
collective body, and we reachedout.
At the time it was to sevenschools, seven secondary schools
, and we did provide them withhampers for two months.
The families that were selectedthey get a hamper in July and
(15:42):
then they get another one inAugust.
Grantley Martelly (15:45):
So can you explain to our listeners what a
hamper is for those who may notknow?
Clarine Cave (15:48):
Oh, sure, a hamper is a basket of goodies, the
essentials, the basic stuff.
So your rice, your sugar, yourpasta, your flour, those items
that will make the basics foryou to be able to have a meal
for those two months.
So is that, yeah, go ahead.
Grantley Martelly (16:11):
I guess my question out of that then is is
food insecurity a challenge inBarbados?
I mean, why did you focus onthis?
Is that a big challenge formany people in Barbados?
Clarine Cave (16:23):
Oh, definitely, and, like I said, we would have
asked the guidance counselors toselect students who their
parents guidance counselorsworking with the students in the
school will know the parentswho are struggling, and we
wanted to target those parents.
Food insecurity is definitely abig issue here and it's gotten
(16:46):
even worse since COVID with theamount of layoffs that we've had
and the amount of single parentfamilies that we have here on
the island.
So we wanted to be able to meetthe government halfway, because
the subsidy is provided for alot of the students during the
times that they're at school, sothe students will get meals at
(17:08):
school.
But when they're not at school,then there's a challenge where
parents are struggling toprovide for their kids during
the summer break.
So that's because that subsidyis not available anymore, and so
we thought, yeah, let's try tohelp in this way.
Grantley Martelly (17:29):
So where are your donors coming from?
Where are you getting the food,the money from donors coming
from?
Where are you getting the food,the money from?
Is it donated by the grocerystores or from private
assistance or governmentassistance?
Clarine Cave (17:41):
We didn't get government assistance, but we
targeted corporate Barbados andsome of the local funders here,
like the Sandy Lane CharitableTrust, the Maria Holder Trust.
We reached out to charitieslike that as well on the island
and they were able to help us.
(18:02):
When we initially started theprocess, we also did a lot of
out-of-pocket because, again,like I said, we were doing it
before we got to this stage.
So we know that, as a charity,as a board, we will put aside a
little bit here, a little bitthere.
So we know that, as a charity,as a board, we will put aside a
little bit here, a little bitthere to ensure that we have
what we needed to help withproviding for more families.
(18:23):
There are schools that arereaching out because we've been
doing this since, like I said,2015.
And we are now gearing up forone this coming summer.
But there are schools that arenot on our list.
We're now up to 15 schools andthere are schools that are not
on our list.
We've got 15 schools and alsochildren who are in residential
(18:48):
care, even though it may betemporary, or in foster care.
So we also help the child careboard here in Barbados with
providing hampers for some ofthose students who return to
their homes.
Grantley Martelly (19:02):
So one of your programs, then, is the food
insecurity and hampers in thesummer, helping kids go back to
school.
What other programs do you run?
Clarine Cave (19:10):
Okay, so we would have had the summer fiesta that
we did for a season.
Grantley Martelly (19:15):
That was dance right, Not the summer
fiesta.
Clarine Cave (19:17):
No, the music festival that we did for a
season, that was music.
Grantley Martelly (19:22):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (19:23):
And then we had the summer fiesta, which is a
food distribution, but then, in2018, we started a program
called Make Music Make aDifference.
It's 3MD.
This is where we use music as acatalyst for behavior change.
Now, this was birthed out ofthe need that we saw emerging
(19:46):
with the incurring andcontinuing violence among
adolescent youth withinsecondary schools.
Grantley Martelly (19:54):
So before you go on, you said it's called the
3MD.
Clarine Cave (19:57):
Correct.
Grantley Martelly (19:58):
What does that mean?
Again, say that again.
Clarine Cave (20:00):
Make music make a difference.
Grantley Martelly (20:03):
Make music make a difference.
Clarine Cave (20:04):
Three N's and a D.
Grantley Martelly (20:06):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (20:10):
Okay, go ahead, tell us about it.
That was all gone.
So we did.
We started that program wherewe selected students.
All we wanted these students tohave was an interest.
You did not have to be able toplay an instrument, you did not
have to be, you know, in aposition where you had the
(20:35):
experience.
All we needed for you to do isto have an interest and be
willing to learn, and there werestudents who came.
When we started the pilot in2018, we had 20 students and
those students came through.
The program did two years, soit's a two-year scholarship
program for the student.
(20:57):
They don't have to provideanything, they don't have to
come with an instrument, theydon't have to come with
transportation, unless theparent insists.
And we also provide them with asnack after school because,
again, kids come and they would,would not?
Some of them did not havesomething to eat during the
(21:17):
course of the day while they'reat school, so we provide them
with something like to eat whenthey get to us.
Um, we provide transportation,so we pick them up from school,
bring them to the facility andthen provide transportation to
take them directly to theirhomes, because, again, we're
dealing with at-risk andvulnerable youth.
So let me me stick that inthere.
With at-risk and vulnerableyouth getting to us would be a
(21:41):
challenge because it's extra busfare that parents will have to
look for.
It's also students who may bedistracted on the way to the
facility and may get into otherthings before they get to us.
So to avoid all of that and toensure that they maximize the
two hours that they had with us,we picked them up from school
(22:02):
and we took them home in theevening.
So we started that program.
Grantley Martelly (22:06):
That's a heavy commitment.
Clarine Cave (22:08):
It is.
It is a heavy commitment, butagain, god, this is his idea.
I'm just the catalyst for whereit's going.
I really could not have come upwith this on my own, with
persons who shared a similarthought or have a similar belief
(22:37):
in that music can transformyour life, whether it is in a
negative way or in a positiveway right, whether the music is
negative or whether the music ispositive, it can impact on your
psyche and we wanted to be ableto use the playing of music to
help children to settle, to helpthem to be able to re-evaluate
(23:01):
their actions, their emotions.
Along with that, we didn't justdo the music, because it's a
music program, yes, but it'smore of a behavior change
program.
So we focused, yes, on themusic, but the behavior is what
we're really trying to get to.
Grantley Martelly (23:19):
So tell us a little bit more about how you do
that.
So you have the children comein.
What age is it these children?
What's the age group?
Clarine Cave (23:28):
Well, the age group is 13 to 16.
We do have one or two who comein, a little come in and a
little younger or a little older, and they're with us for two
years.
Right, and what we do?
We take them through theprocess of understanding
themselves and doself-regulation.
How do I regulate my emotions?
So first I have to identifywhat emotions I have.
(23:50):
So we go through that process ofbeing able to identify your
emotions.
Why are you having this feeling?
Why are you not having thisfeeling?
And once you're able toregulate your emotion, you now
have to learn to regulate thatemotion in relation to somebody
else, because you don't live ina silo.
So we go through things likethat.
We go through behavior changeinterventions.
(24:11):
Why would you react in aparticular way?
Do you even understand why youreact in a particular way?
We did things like personalityprofiling understanding your own
personality, the strengths andweaknesses of your personality,
and then how that can rub on thestrengths or weaknesses of
(24:31):
another person's personality,and a lot of the dynamics that
we do in the soft classes thatwe like to call them.
Then come out in the bandsessions when they're going to a
band, Because Bob next to youis supposed to be playing keys
but he's not focused and you are, and you're getting agitated
because Bob would not focus.
(24:52):
What would you have learned inthose soft skill sessions now
that you can implement in theband session To help?
you to be a little bit moretolerant of Bob, or to pull Bob
one side and pull him along,encourage him.
And it's a phenomenon to watchwhere you have kids who would
not care about each other comingfrom differing schools, and
(25:12):
then they work and they, as afamily, they work to encourage
each other coming from differingschools, and then they work and
they, as a family, they work toencourage each other.
They work to just seethemselves get better in this
space.
They let down their guards.
They are so comfortable withthe tutors and the facilitators.
It's just an amazing thing towatch.
Grantley Martelly (25:31):
That's great.
That's a great approach.
Now, if these children were notin this program, what likely
would they be doing, or wherewould their life's direction be
headed?
Clarine Cave (25:44):
On a different trajectory, that's for sure.
Some of them, some of the kidswho came through the program we
would have experienced studentswho are now at university,
students who settled in theiracademics at secondary school,
got reports back from theschools, from some of the
(26:06):
teachers, where students weresettling and paying more
attention to their work.
Yes, there were some who werebeing sent home and stuff like
that.
That stopped, so things likethat did not happen anymore.
There were students who tookpride in coming and looking
after the instrument that hasbeen assigned to them.
There are students who wouldtalk back to parents or just be
(26:34):
agitated in the home space, whoare no longer doing this, who
parents have commented.
I am not sure what it is thaty'all are doing up there, but
whatever it is, keep doing it,because you can see the
noticeable changes in students.
Now that comes over time andagain, it is not a one strategy
(26:57):
or a one stop fix all, but wesaw changes.
We saw small changes from achild making the decision to say
okay, you know what, when Icome up the stairs or when I
come to this facility, I'musually angry, I'm usually
carrying the world on myshoulders, but when I come, and
as much as I'm angry, I'm stillgoing to sit in the session and
(27:20):
listen and participate.
So you'd hear comments comingfrom them like ma'am, I'm real
tired this evening, I do notwant to be here, I'm not coming
back.
And then the next week they'rehere and they're saying oh, so I
thought you weren't coming back.
(27:40):
So it's an interesting.
Like I said, it's aninteresting phenomenon.
The children that we get at thebeginning of this program are
unidentifiable.
At the end it's not the samechild.
Grantley Martelly (27:52):
A transformational change For all
of them.
Clarine Cave (27:54):
It's transformational and that is
something for me that I think myteam and I we understand that
that's not something that youcan pay us for, but it is a
welcome engagement.
It's something that is sofulfilling for all of us that we
are not.
We are all willing to put ourhands to the cloud.
Grantley Martelly (28:13):
Wow, that's, that's great.
Now, is this a religiousorganization?
That I mean, do you require thechildren to come from churches
or to go to church, or that?
Are you open to any child who'swilling to participate?
Clarine Cave (28:28):
We are open to any child who's willing to
participate.
They're selected by theirschools, whether it be the music
teacher, the guidancecounselors, year aheads
principal.
We have principals knockingdown our doors.
They're only supposed to selectfour students and they're
knocking.
Can you give me another space?
Can you give me another space?
We don't have the space to giveyou another space.
(28:51):
But so we are a Christianorganization because God is at
the helm of our organization.
He is the foundation of thisorganization.
So we pray over the children.
When I say pray, we cometogether as an admin team, as a
management team, we cometogether.
(29:11):
We pray for those children dayin and day out.
We also encourage them.
So if there are some of themwho go to church because some of
them, as you know, Barbados isan island where children still
do go to church, so some of themgo to church Some of them are
involved in activities at theirchurches.
(29:33):
They're not necessarilybuilding their relationship with
the Lord, but they are involvedin activities at their churches
, and so we help to point themin that direction as well.
We also like to help them withtheir in terms of when we have
song selection, for example,You're selecting songs and I had
(29:55):
one of our past students saidto me, just you know, in passing
, he said, ma'am, it is reallyinteresting that we played all
these songs and we've beenengaging these songs.
But see, gospel music issomething else.
You know, it's really somethingelse, it really changes you.
And that was interesting for meto know because he's playing
(30:19):
with bands outside of theprogram.
He's just doing his thingmusically.
He just finished his associatedegree at the Barbers Community
College and he's doing things,he's going places.
So he's seeing himself inspaces and doing things that if
he had not settled, he says Iwould not be here if I had not
(30:43):
settled down.
Grantley Martelly (30:44):
It's good to have those testimonies.
Are there other programs thatyou also run, or these two keep
you busy and at full capacity?
Clarine Cave (30:54):
Correct.
We are at full throttle rightnow.
There are things that I wouldlike for us to get into because,
again, music we provide thatexperience for these children.
It's an experience that, undernormal circumstances, a lot of
these kids would not experience.
They would not have had theexperience of playing an
(31:16):
instrument or going anywhere toget a lesson by some of the top
musicians in Barbados.
That would not happen for them,and we are glad to be able to
provide that for them at no costto them, because, again, if
these students had to pay to goto these classes, they would
probably not go right.
So there are other things thatwe would like to get into, but
(31:36):
we want to focus more on thisand continue to build this to
the point where it becomessustainable on its own without
having to have.
Well, we may still need funding, because we are a charity, we
don't make money so typically,what kind of cost is involved in
running a program like this?
Grantley Martelly (31:53):
do you do you have like, uh, the, obviously I
am assuming the, the foodinsecurity and the hampers, is
one separate program and thenthe, the music and arts, is a
separate program, fundedseparately and run separately.
So how do you keep this going?
Clarine Cave (32:14):
Well, we have to source funding.
So for our hamper distribution,for example, instead of what we
get in kind, it's like $30,000Barbados to do that for two
months for the amount offamilies that we try to cover,
the amount of schools that wetry to cover, amount of schools
(32:34):
that we try to cover.
And again, we are baby scrapingthe bucket when we talk about
how many schools we reach.
We're reaching 15 out of 20somebody schools, and this is
just secondary schools, it's noteven primary schools but 15
schools.
Grantley Martelly (32:46):
But how much?
How many people does thatactually represent?
That you're?
Clarine Cave (32:49):
helping.
So we get two families fromthose 15 schools.
Grantley Martelly (32:53):
So 30 families.
Clarine Cave (32:54):
Right.
And then we also have thefamilies that come from the
Child Care Board, where we willget probably 11 or so families,
and then there's the SunriseEarly Education Development
Center.
We also assist them.
This is children who may beautistic.
So we help those students aswell, those parents who have
(33:20):
autistic children who are inthat program.
We also help them with hampersas well.
That's about how many familiesas well.
That's about how many families.
That's last hamper distribution.
We did 77 families.
Grantley Martelly (33:37):
Total yes, 77 families total, and that's
every year.
Clarine Cave (33:44):
Yes, that's every year.
Grantley Martelly (33:46):
Okay, and you can do that with that $30,000
budget.
Yes, we can do that with that$30,000 budget.
Clarine Cave (33:52):
Yes, we can do that with that $30,000 budget.
Again, it's the essentials and,mind you, each family gets a
hamper for two months.
Grantley Martelly (34:07):
July and.
Clarine Cave (34:07):
August.
Well, so it's not 77 families,it's 77 hamper distributions 77
hampers Okay.
Yeah.
Grantley Martelly (34:17):
Yeah, or for the two months.
Clarine Cave (34:19):
Yes.
Grantley Martelly (34:21):
So then at the music program that's.
That's a separate thing that'stargeting 20 children right.
Clarine Cave (34:27):
Well, that was the pilot program.
We now have 40 studentsenrolled for the last two
cohorts.
Grantley Martelly (34:33):
We had in 2022 to 2024,.
Clarine Cave (34:37):
we had 40 students , and 33 of those students
completed the program.
Grantley Martelly (34:45):
Yeah, what happened?
Clarine Cave (34:49):
to the others.
Grantley Martelly (34:52):
Well, they dropped out for reasons.
Clarine Cave (34:53):
For different reasons they dropped out for
different reasons.
Grantley Martelly (34:54):
Yeah, for different reasons and how much
did that program cost you to run?
Clarine Cave (34:59):
well, it can go into the 100,000, 200,000 a year
and it's a two year programyeah, did that include
instruments and all of that?
Yes, because again, a year andit's a two-year program.
Yeah, did that includeinstruments and all of that?
Yes, because, again, well, wehave our catchment of
(35:21):
instruments now.
What we're working on now isbeing able to, for example, with
the guitars Students come andbecause they don't have a guitar
at home, it's hard for them topractice at home.
So we have to loan them theguitar.
But remember, if you come onTuesdays, you take the guitar,
the guy that's coming on Monday.
What is he going to use?
Grantley Martelly (35:42):
That's what condition is it coming back in?
Clarine Cave (35:44):
Yeah, the maintenance is high, as you
would imagine, but still I meanit's high initially until they
learn to care for them, untilthey learn to have a measure of
respect for their instrument.
Grantley Martelly (36:04):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (36:05):
Right.
And then there are instrumentsthat cost more than others.
So, for example, to buy a steelpan, we have to buy a steel pan
from Trinidad, and a steel panis going to cost us $1,500 US.
That's just the pan.
We also still have to get ithere, so we have to ship it.
We don't make instruments herein Barbados, so we have to ship
(36:26):
them from the US or ship themfrom Trinidad, and that is cost
that is incurred.
But our biggest cost more sothan the instruments itself is
our transportation costs,because we have to outsource the
drivers.
We don't have a vehicle.
We have to outsource thedrivers and a lot of the times
(36:53):
they're taxi drivers who aretaking off of a route or from
taking a regular job that theymay have, maybe at the airport
or whatever, and they don'tcharge us the fee that will be
charged to take each child totheir respective homes.
Wow so, but it's still high,right?
We have to consider the riseand fall of diesel and the fact
(37:15):
that we have drivers that aregoing as far as we're located in
Wildey and we have driversgoing as far as St Lucy to drop
off students on evening, orcoming from as far as St Peter
from Coleridge and PrairieSchool to Wildey on evenings.
Grantley Martelly (37:34):
So what other things do you want to share?
Clarine Cave (37:36):
Taking them to the south of the island as well.
So we have two sets oftransportation, one going to the
north and then one going to thesouth.
Grantley Martelly (37:43):
The distances that Clarine refers to are
about 13 miles in eitherdirection from the Partners that
Care headquarters.
Okay, yeah, so what otherthings do you want to share?
Clarine Cave (37:57):
The thing that I want the audience that is
listening to understand that alot of times we think that
things are bigger than us andthey can't be done.
I used to think that thisprogram was I still think that
it is.
Actually it was a hugeundertaking, but I know that.
(38:18):
I know that.
I know that because God is init, it's success is built on him
.
Yes, it's built on what we doand we have to report on
successes and challenges and howwe overcome the challenges.
But at the end of the day, thisis God ordained.
I believe that within my heart,because I could not have come
(38:39):
up with this.
I could not have come up withevery intricate part of this
program where the transportationis concerned, where kids come
and they're not focused and thereason why they're not focused
is because they haven't eatenand then to say, oh yeah, you
know what, let me find a waythat we can give them a snack on
evenings when they get here orafter they've been here.
(39:01):
So you get kids who get a snackbefore they do anything with
their tutors, or sometimes theyget it after.
But I would not have knownthese things if it wasn't.
You know, god, you knowprompting you that this could be
the issue.
A lot of times we we are metwith energy that your children
(39:22):
come with because of the thingsthey would have gone through
during the core of the day atschool, because it's an
after-school program.
So they're coming with all thatbaggage from what would have
transpired at school, whether itwas interaction with teachers
at school or whether it wasinteraction with another student
.
They're coming with a lot ofbaggage.
(39:42):
This has nothing to do with thehome environment.
So this is just coming fromschool, right, and we would not
have been able to navigate a lotof these things had it not been
God on our side to help us, toequip us, to help us to
strategize on how to reach thesechildren, how to break down
some of the walls, because thesechildren are dealing with a lot
(40:06):
of issues, right Fromabandonment from some of them,
homelessness, right.
There's one issue after theother and as children, they're
not getting to be children.
And then I have to go to school.
On focus, we had a student inour pilot program who was
looking after five youngersiblings, had to get up, get
(40:28):
them ready for school, take themto school before she went off
to school, and that was becomingtoo much of a burden for her.
Not that her parent wasn'ttrying to help, but the parent
had to go off to work, andsometimes early, early in the
morning, so she was left as acaregiver for the other siblings
.
So again, it seems sometimeslike it is really bigger than we
(40:53):
are.
But prayer, but God, andtherefore I ride on that
consistently.
Sometimes I write my proposalsand my budget seem like I don't
know how people are going togive to this.
I don't know where this moneyis going to be coming from.
And then God shows up.
(41:14):
So don't put your dreams aside,don't lay them down.
Trust God, have faith that hecan do more than you think he
can do.
If it's too big for you tohandle, then it is a God, it's a
God project, it's a Godassignment.
Grantley Martelly (41:33):
Yeah, if you can do it yourself, you don't
need any help.
Clarine Cave (41:35):
I'm telling you you don't need God.
Grantley Martelly (41:39):
So I mean, this has been very interesting
discussion and people may bewondering wow, how do we help
and how do we get involved?
And there's a number of ways Iwant to transition to now right
now.
But Partners that Care has awebsite, their own website, that
you can look them up onpartnersthatcareinternationalorg
(41:59):
.
Partnersthatcareinternationalorg.
And you can give to theorganization to that website.
If you're in the United Statesor outside of the Caribbean, we
(42:20):
my wife and I has a nonprofitcalled Shonky global that we
have set up and that will beable to assist this organization
, and that website is S H O N GI globalorg S-H-O-N-G-I dot org
and you can donate there and wecan get that to the organization
(42:43):
as well, if you choose.
And that's a 501c3 organizationregistered in the United States
, so your contribution could betax deductible if you want.
That's a 501c3 organizationregistered in the United States,
so your contributions could betax deductible if you want them
to be tax deductible.
We just wanted to let you knowthat there's a relationship
there and we wanted to get thisword out to you that this
(43:10):
organization, partners that CareInternational, is doing
phenomenal work in Barbados,helping these young people,
these families, in ways thatmany of them would not
necessarily be able to get, andsometimes we in the United
States or in Europe we havecertain ways of doing things,
but they don't always translatewhen you get into other
(43:32):
countries.
So we'll try to help from thisside and try to get the funds to
them, but also realizing thateven on an island nation like
Barbados, which is not very big,there are big issues and big
challenges that need to beaddressed.
And every child we can help,wherever they are in the world,
(43:53):
is a child whose potential wecan get to see become what God
created them to be, and lettheir future not be determined
by the circumstances in whichthey find themselves, and help
them to understand that wherethey are now does not
necessarily mean that's wherethey're going to be in the
future, but we can help thembuild a brighter future.
(44:15):
So, clarine, thank you for thework that you're doing, thank
you for PartnersCare, thank youfor persisting and working
through all the things to makesomething like this work.
We will do whatever we can tohelp you, and if you're out
there in the Caribbean, you cangive to
partnerscareinternationalorg,and if you're in the United
(44:36):
States or Europe or other placesoutside the Caribbean, you can
give to shangiglobalorg and justdesignate it for Partners that
Care International, and we willmake sure it gets there.
Also, you can write us at abovethe noise 24, above the noise
(44:56):
24 at gmailcom, and we can get amessage and we can get the
email to clarine.
Uh, clarine, I don't know ifyou want to share your email or
if you prefer to come from us,but that's up to you.
Clarine Cave (45:10):
Yeah, my email address is ccave and it's a long
thing at partners that careinternational.
So it's ccave at partners thatcare international dot org.
Grantley Martelly (45:24):
Well, thank you.
Any closing remarks?
Clarine Cave (45:28):
We really appreciate any assistance that
we can get and for those who maywant to give, they don't
necessarily have to givefinancially, but they can give
in their prayers, they can givein kind.
If you have an instrument thatyou want to dust off and you
know, box it up and send it tous, whether you are here in the
region or in the US.
(45:48):
We would appreciate that a lotbecause we need to help our
students as much as we can.
So thank you very much forlistening and thanks, stu, for
having me.
Grantley Martelly (45:59):
You're welcome.
My pleasure to have you.
Remember to subscribe and leaveus a rating.
Ratings are very important tohelping our podcast succeed in
the podcast universe and helpingit become known to other people
.
Email us your comments atabovethenoise24 at gmailcom.
(46:22):
Abovethenoise24 at gmailcom.
And follow us on Instagram andFacebook at AboveTheNoise24.
Thank you for listening andplease share this episode with a
friend.
Welcome to Above the Noise, a podcast at
the intersection of faith, raceand reconciliation, and I'm your
host Gr antley, Martelly.
So welcome back to Above theNoise Faith, race and
Reconciliation.
My guest today is Ms.
(00:30):
Clarine Cave, from Partnersthat Care International on the
island of Barbados, lookingforward to our conversation
together and I know you're goingto enjoy it through the work
that she and her team are doingthere.
So, Clarine, welcome to Abovethe Noise.
Clarine Cave (00:47):
Thank you for having me.
It's great to be here.
Grantley Martelly (00:52):
Introduce yourself to our guests.
Tell them who you are, whereyou live, a little bit about you
and your family.
Clarine Cave (01:00):
Well, like I said, my name is Clarine or Clarine
Cave.
A lot of Americans call meClarine because it's the short A
and not Clarine with the long A.
Grantley Martelly (01:12):
Which do you prefer?
Clarine Cave (01:14):
It doesn't matter, it really doesn't.
Grantley Martelly (01:17):
I can go back to my bedroom and call you
Clarine if you want me to Right,so Clarine is good, okay, good
soClarine is good, okay, I am a
mother of five.
Clarine Cave (01:32):
I've been married, for December coming will be 30
years, wow and we live here onthe island of Barbados,
beautiful Barbados.
Well, it's raining outside now,but it's usually sunny all year
round.
Um, I am a very active and avidrunner.
I love sports and specificallyathletics, and I love the Lord,
(01:55):
my faith journey.
I grew up in church.
I like to tell people my storyof being at church more often as
a child than I thought I shouldbe, but it wasn't one specific
church, so my story goes back.
I was born by a Dominican parent.
My mom is from Dominica.
(02:15):
Most of my siblings not mostall of my siblings are from
Dominica.
So when my mom came here andshe had me, I'm born to a
Dominican mom and a Barbadiandad.
So I got christened in theAnglican church at St Michael's
Cathedral.
I then, in my growing up, Istarted going to the Catholic
(02:39):
church because my mom wasCatholic, and I started doing
First Communion classes.
There's confirmation of FirstCommunion, so I did First
Communion classes on Saturdaysand then my aunt moved here from
the UK and I was living withher and my grandmother and in
(02:59):
living with them she went tochurch at the Adventist Church
and therefore I used to go tochurch on Saturday at the
Adventist church and then onSunday at the Catholic church
until I decided, okay, I wantedto make a decision for the Lord
when I was about 11, and I gotbaptized into the Adventist
(03:21):
church.
I spent most of my teenage yearswithin the Adventist church and
, again, you want that littlerebellious streak in your
teenage years.
You want to do what you want todo, and that led me then to my
husband, who, him and I, thengot baptized into the Wesleyan
(03:42):
church, and so we've been onthis journey.
But my desire and my hunger hasalways been for the things of
God and I think that started toopen up when I started doing
those First Communion classeswithin the Catholic Church and
it started to grow as I startedto read the quarterly and so
forth as a young child coming upin the Adventist church.
(04:05):
But I always piqued my interestto want to know more about God.
Okay, so my journey thendeveloped a thirst or a hunger
for the things of God and Istarted going to the Adventist
church on Saturdays and Catholicchurch on Sundays, and I've
(04:26):
always had this appetite to wantto know more.
To the Adventist church onSaturdays and Catholic church on
Sundays, and I've always hadthis appetite to want to know
more.
And my journey then brought meto where I am now, just seeking
out the things of God.
You know, I love the Lord withall my heart.
I just want to do what he wantsme to do, and so my journey has
been that of coming through thedifferent phases or the
(04:49):
different churches.
So I am well-churched, going tothe different churches and so
forth, and I really appreciatethe journey that I've been on.
Grantley Martelly (05:03):
So you got through the church part to
actually coming to the point ofwanting to develop your
relationship with God and live alife he wants you to live,
which is not always the samething.
That's why I made thatdistinction.
Clarine Cave (05:18):
Exactly.
Grantley Martelly (05:19):
Sometimes you can do the church thing and
never really find a relationshipwith God.
Once you find a relationshipwith God, it changes everything.
So let's talk about yourprofessional journey.
Were you always in non-profitwork or where did you start out?
Clarine Cave (05:35):
My background initially was sports.
I was a professional athlete,one of Barbra's first
professional athletes, if youwant to put it that way I was in
that grouping.
That started the Barbados sportsprogram back in 1991.
And I was a distance athleteand a thrower.
(05:58):
I threw javelin representingthe Barbados Defense Force as
well as my country, representingthe Barber's Defense Force as
well as my country, and that waswhere my professional journey
started.
I was 19 at the time, went onfrom there to do administration.
(06:18):
Well, I became a full-timesoldier after the sports program
.
Leg was almost coming to an endbecause I did not pursue an
athletic scholarship for varyingreasons I wanted to stay here
and, in doing so, join the armyfull-time.
(06:39):
In doing that I then realizedthat you know, this is good for
the discipline and all that.
So I broke my contract.
Five years after I enlisted Ibroke my contract and I pursued
then a Korean administrationthat started within the army.
(07:02):
But I continued that pursuituntil the desire within me to
help people started to grow more.
There was always this nigglingthat I could help.
If I can help people, whatwould I do?
What would I do?
And it is in those years, thoseinitial years, that I thought
OK, I'll start studyingpsychology.
(07:22):
I studied that and then I wenton to do my associate degree in
psychology.
I did well, that was atBarbados Community College.
And then I did somecertification courses.
I did guidance and counseling,gender and development studies.
(07:45):
I also did certification ininternational health.
So this took me down the path ofgoing into HIV and AIDS and
that's where I started to lookat doing programming work.
I was part of a team that wewrote proposals for funding and
stuff like that and weimplemented programs within the
(08:08):
community more based towardssensitization of the HIV AIDS.
At the time the company had acharity leg of it and I was
given the task of managing thecharity.
And that's how my desire thenfor charity work started to grow
(08:30):
, because I thought of myselfthen being able to facilitate
what I wanted to do, which wasmy love for the performing arts
and helping others, because Idid not want to be a
psychologist sitting behind adesk and seeing people every day
.
I wanted to be the boots on theground.
I did not want to be as much asI'm going to qualify guidance
(08:55):
counselor.
I did not want to be a guidancecounselor sitting behind a desk
every day, just seeing you knowpeople or seeing students.
So I wanted to marry my twoloves, which was my love for the
performing arts and my love forpsychology, and that led me
then to a space of wanting to doit for those who, more than
(09:19):
likely, were not going to beable to afford to pay for it.
Grantley Martelly (09:25):
So out of that desire, then, is that what
led you to start Partners thatCare?
How did you get to the pointwhere you say I want to form
this organization and who wasgoing to be your target audience
, and why did you do that?
Clarine Cave (09:40):
Well, my husband and I we have always again
because I guess together wecollectively did a lot of
helping in the community.
We would give out food hampersto random families along the way
, we would do things like adopta children's home or a senior
(10:00):
citizen's home and we would godown and cut the grass and paint
the building and do stuff likethat, and I realized that we
both like doing these things forour community.
You know, just lift the moraleand the spirits of people.
And after the company I wasworking for under the HIV AIDS
(10:22):
banner, after that companyclosed, I wanted to do something
and no matter how manyapplications I wrote, there was
nothing coming back.
There was just nothinghappening.
And your tendency is to say,okay, God, so everybody who was
working with me seems to havegone back out to work.
(10:42):
What's going on?
Why can't I, you know, getemployed?
And that happened for about ayear and a half after, you know,
the company closed.
And again, a bad idea wasn't myidea.
I'd like to take credit for it.
No, I wouldn't.
(11:02):
God impressed upon me to startPartners at Care International,
and the name is an interestingthing because my sister, who
lives in New York, worked for acompany called Partners in Care
and I thought Partners in Care,I don't want to be a partner in
care, I'm a partner that cares,so that's how the name came
(11:24):
about.
In Care, I'm a partner thatcares, so that's how the name
came about.
So I kind of piggyback on thatwhole partner that cares thing
and I want it to be a network ofpeople, not just to be a silo.
I wanted it to be a network ofpeople who shared a similar
interest because, again,Partners at Care International,
we help our community butthey're arms of it that we try
(11:48):
to facilitate.
So we came together with somepersons who had like mind, which
now make up the board, becausethey too were doing their own
little bits and pieces in theirsphere of influence, and
therefore we came together,formed the board and, under the
umbrella of Partners that CareInternational, we registered the
(12:09):
charity.
Grantley Martelly (12:10):
And what year was that?
Clarine Cave (12:12):
That was in 2014.
Grantley Martelly (12:15):
2014, okay.
So now you have Partners thatCare International, formally
formed as an organization.
So what are some of the thingsprograms that you focus on?
Where is your space that you'reworking in, and tell us about
some of the things that you'redoing?
Clarine Cave (12:33):
Sure what we did when we first started.
We worked with the Ministry ofEducation here in Barbados
because, again, my love is forthe arts.
I've been a dancer for many,many, many years and but I've
always known of dance from aministry perspective, even when
(12:54):
I stopped dancing, from asecular perspective.
Um, dance as a ministry fixesyou the individual first, before
you can minister to others, andtherefore I always felt like
this is a place where othersneed to know how to be able to
fix themselves using these arts,using music, using theater.
(13:17):
How can you get the help from amental perspective, from a
holistic and emotional, aspiritual perspective?
How can you get that help usingthe arts?
So I approached the Ministry ofEducation and we did two, three
years biannually.
(13:38):
We did a school's musicfestival.
They liked the idea.
We ran a event on the road withit and we had a biannual
competition within the schools,the secondary schools and the
primary schools.
What partners at CARE did wasthe developmental workshop and
the ministry took care of allthe music parts, all the other
(13:59):
logistics of that event.
So we would have that eventbiannually.
We did it three cycles and thenalso on the back of that, we
did our first food hamperdistribution.
Now, like I mentioned to youearlier, we would have done my
husband and I would have donefood hampers on a one-off, so we
(14:21):
would have maybe given away twoor three food hampers on a
one-off.
So we would have maybe givenaway two or three food hampers
on occasions.
But this was a situation nowwhere we were going to make it
even bigger and try to reachmore people.
So, because of my contacts,having done guidance and
counseling, I knew a lot of theguidance counselors in school
(14:44):
because we would have gone toschool together.
So I contacted some of them andasked them to look for students
within their schools who wouldhave been at the bottom of the
barrel, so to speak, and wouldneed the help most because, you
know, anybody at this point inlife could do with a hamper.
We don't mind getting free foodright, but I wanted to target
(15:07):
those who were at the bottom ofthe bottom right, those who were
finding it really reallychallenging to provide for their
children during the long breakof the summer.
Grantley Martelly (15:19):
So in 2015,.
Clarine Cave (15:20):
that's what we did .
We started our first summerfiesta as a charity, a
collective body, and we reachedout.
At the time it was to sevenschools, seven secondary schools
, and we did provide them withhampers for two months.
The families that were selectedthey get a hamper in July and
(15:42):
then they get another one inAugust.
Grantley Martelly (15:45):
So can you explain to our listeners what a
hamper is for those who may notknow?
Clarine Cave (15:48):
Oh, sure, a hamper is a basket of goodies, the
essentials, the basic stuff.
So your rice, your sugar, yourpasta, your flour, those items
that will make the basics foryou to be able to have a meal
for those two months.
So is that, yeah, go ahead.
Grantley Martelly (16:11):
I guess my question out of that then is is
food insecurity a challenge inBarbados?
I mean, why did you focus onthis?
Is that a big challenge formany people in Barbados?
Clarine Cave (16:23):
Oh, definitely, and, like I said, we would have
asked the guidance counselors toselect students who their
parents guidance counselorsworking with the students in the
school will know the parentswho are struggling, and we
wanted to target those parents.
Food insecurity is definitely abig issue here and it's gotten
(16:46):
even worse since COVID with theamount of layoffs that we've had
and the amount of single parentfamilies that we have here on
the island.
So we wanted to be able to meetthe government halfway, because
the subsidy is provided for alot of the students during the
times that they're at school, sothe students will get meals at
(17:08):
school.
But when they're not at school,then there's a challenge where
parents are struggling toprovide for their kids during
the summer break.
So that's because that subsidyis not available anymore, and so
we thought, yeah, let's try tohelp in this way.
Grantley Martelly (17:29):
So where are your donors coming from?
Where are you getting the food,the money from donors coming
from?
Where are you getting the food,the money from?
Is it donated by the grocerystores or from private
assistance or governmentassistance?
Clarine Cave (17:41):
We didn't get government assistance, but we
targeted corporate Barbados andsome of the local funders here,
like the Sandy Lane CharitableTrust, the Maria Holder Trust.
We reached out to charitieslike that as well on the island
and they were able to help us.
(18:02):
When we initially started theprocess, we also did a lot of
out-of-pocket because, again,like I said, we were doing it
before we got to this stage.
So we know that, as a charity,as a board, we will put aside a
little bit here, a little bitthere.
So we know that, as a charity,as a board, we will put aside a
little bit here, a little bitthere to ensure that we have
what we needed to help withproviding for more families.
(18:23):
There are schools that arereaching out because we've been
doing this since, like I said,2015.
And we are now gearing up forone this coming summer.
But there are schools that arenot on our list.
We're now up to 15 schools andthere are schools that are not
on our list.
We've got 15 schools and alsochildren who are in residential
(18:48):
care, even though it may betemporary, or in foster care.
So we also help the child careboard here in Barbados with
providing hampers for some ofthose students who return to
their homes.
Grantley Martelly (19:02):
So one of your programs, then, is the food
insecurity and hampers in thesummer, helping kids go back to
school.
What other programs do you run?
Clarine Cave (19:10):
Okay, so we would have had the summer fiesta that
we did for a season.
Grantley Martelly (19:15):
That was dance right, Not the summer
fiesta.
Clarine Cave (19:17):
No, the music festival that we did for a
season, that was music.
Grantley Martelly (19:22):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (19:23):
And then we had the summer fiesta, which is a
food distribution, but then, in2018, we started a program
called Make Music Make aDifference.
It's 3MD.
This is where we use music as acatalyst for behavior change.
Now, this was birthed out ofthe need that we saw emerging
(19:46):
with the incurring andcontinuing violence among
adolescent youth withinsecondary schools.
Grantley Martelly (19:54):
So before you go on, you said it's called the
3MD.
Clarine Cave (19:57):
Correct.
Grantley Martelly (19:58):
What does that mean?
Again, say that again.
Clarine Cave (20:00):
Make music make a difference.
Grantley Martelly (20:03):
Make music make a difference.
Clarine Cave (20:04):
Three N's and a D.
Grantley Martelly (20:06):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (20:10):
Okay, go ahead, tell us about it.
That was all gone.
So we did.
We started that program wherewe selected students.
All we wanted these students tohave was an interest.
You did not have to be able toplay an instrument, you did not
have to be, you know, in aposition where you had the
(20:35):
experience.
All we needed for you to do isto have an interest and be
willing to learn, and there werestudents who came.
When we started the pilot in2018, we had 20 students and
those students came through.
The program did two years, soit's a two-year scholarship
program for the student.
(20:57):
They don't have to provideanything, they don't have to
come with an instrument, theydon't have to come with
transportation, unless theparent insists.
And we also provide them with asnack after school because,
again, kids come and they would,would not?
Some of them did not havesomething to eat during the
(21:17):
course of the day while they'reat school, so we provide them
with something like to eat whenthey get to us.
Um, we provide transportation,so we pick them up from school,
bring them to the facility andthen provide transportation to
take them directly to theirhomes, because, again, we're
dealing with at-risk andvulnerable youth.
So let me me stick that inthere.
With at-risk and vulnerableyouth getting to us would be a
(21:41):
challenge because it's extra busfare that parents will have to
look for.
It's also students who may bedistracted on the way to the
facility and may get into otherthings before they get to us.
So to avoid all of that and toensure that they maximize the
two hours that they had with us,we picked them up from school
(22:02):
and we took them home in theevening.
So we started that program.
Grantley Martelly (22:06):
That's a heavy commitment.
Clarine Cave (22:08):
It is.
It is a heavy commitment, butagain, god, this is his idea.
I'm just the catalyst for whereit's going.
I really could not have come upwith this on my own, with
persons who shared a similarthought or have a similar belief
(22:37):
in that music can transformyour life, whether it is in a
negative way or in a positiveway right, whether the music is
negative or whether the music ispositive, it can impact on your
psyche and we wanted to be ableto use the playing of music to
help children to settle, to helpthem to be able to re-evaluate
(23:01):
their actions, their emotions.
Along with that, we didn't justdo the music, because it's a
music program, yes, but it'smore of a behavior change
program.
So we focused, yes, on themusic, but the behavior is what
we're really trying to get to.
Grantley Martelly (23:19):
So tell us a little bit more about how you do
that.
So you have the children comein.
What age is it these children?
What's the age group?
Clarine Cave (23:28):
Well, the age group is 13 to 16.
We do have one or two who comein, a little come in and a
little younger or a little older, and they're with us for two
years.
Right, and what we do?
We take them through theprocess of understanding
themselves and doself-regulation.
How do I regulate my emotions?
So first I have to identifywhat emotions I have.
(23:50):
So we go through that process ofbeing able to identify your
emotions.
Why are you having this feeling?
Why are you not having thisfeeling?
And once you're able toregulate your emotion, you now
have to learn to regulate thatemotion in relation to somebody
else, because you don't live ina silo.
So we go through things likethat.
We go through behavior changeinterventions.
(24:11):
Why would you react in aparticular way?
Do you even understand why youreact in a particular way?
We did things like personalityprofiling understanding your own
personality, the strengths andweaknesses of your personality,
and then how that can rub on thestrengths or weaknesses of
(24:31):
another person's personality,and a lot of the dynamics that
we do in the soft classes thatwe like to call them.
Then come out in the bandsessions when they're going to a
band, Because Bob next to youis supposed to be playing keys
but he's not focused and you are, and you're getting agitated
because Bob would not focus.
(24:52):
What would you have learned inthose soft skill sessions now
that you can implement in theband session To help?
you to be a little bit moretolerant of Bob, or to pull Bob
one side and pull him along,encourage him.
And it's a phenomenon to watchwhere you have kids who would
not care about each other comingfrom differing schools, and
(25:12):
then they work and they, as afamily, they work to encourage
each other coming from differingschools, and then they work and
they, as a family, they work toencourage each other.
They work to just seethemselves get better in this
space.
They let down their guards.
They are so comfortable withthe tutors and the facilitators.
It's just an amazing thing towatch.
Grantley Martelly (25:31):
That's great.
That's a great approach.
Now, if these children were notin this program, what likely
would they be doing, or wherewould their life's direction be
headed?
Clarine Cave (25:44):
On a different trajectory, that's for sure.
Some of them, some of the kidswho came through the program we
would have experienced studentswho are now at university,
students who settled in theiracademics at secondary school,
got reports back from theschools, from some of the
(26:06):
teachers, where students weresettling and paying more
attention to their work.
Yes, there were some who werebeing sent home and stuff like
that.
That stopped, so things likethat did not happen anymore.
There were students who tookpride in coming and looking
after the instrument that hasbeen assigned to them.
There are students who wouldtalk back to parents or just be
(26:34):
agitated in the home space, whoare no longer doing this, who
parents have commented.
I am not sure what it is thaty'all are doing up there, but
whatever it is, keep doing it,because you can see the
noticeable changes in students.
Now that comes over time andagain, it is not a one strategy
(26:57):
or a one stop fix all, but wesaw changes.
We saw small changes from achild making the decision to say
okay, you know what, when Icome up the stairs or when I
come to this facility, I'musually angry, I'm usually
carrying the world on myshoulders, but when I come, and
as much as I'm angry, I'm stillgoing to sit in the session and
(27:20):
listen and participate.
So you'd hear comments comingfrom them like ma'am, I'm real
tired this evening, I do notwant to be here, I'm not coming
back.
And then the next week they'rehere and they're saying oh, so I
thought you weren't coming back.
(27:40):
So it's an interesting.
Like I said, it's aninteresting phenomenon.
The children that we get at thebeginning of this program are
unidentifiable.
At the end it's not the samechild.
Grantley Martelly (27:52):
A transformational change For all
of them.
Clarine Cave (27:54):
It's transformational and that is
something for me that I think myteam and I we understand that
that's not something that youcan pay us for, but it is a
welcome engagement.
It's something that is sofulfilling for all of us that we
are not.
We are all willing to put ourhands to the cloud.
Grantley Martelly (28:13):
Wow, that's, that's great.
Now, is this a religiousorganization?
That I mean, do you require thechildren to come from churches
or to go to church, or that?
Are you open to any child who'swilling to participate?
Clarine Cave (28:28):
We are open to any child who's willing to
participate.
They're selected by theirschools, whether it be the music
teacher, the guidancecounselors, year aheads
principal.
We have principals knockingdown our doors.
They're only supposed to selectfour students and they're
knocking.
Can you give me another space?
Can you give me another space?
We don't have the space to giveyou another space.
(28:51):
But so we are a Christianorganization because God is at
the helm of our organization.
He is the foundation of thisorganization.
So we pray over the children.
When I say pray, we cometogether as an admin team, as a
management team, we cometogether.
(29:11):
We pray for those children dayin and day out.
We also encourage them.
So if there are some of themwho go to church because some of
them, as you know, Barbados isan island where children still
do go to church, so some of themgo to church Some of them are
involved in activities at theirchurches.
(29:33):
They're not necessarilybuilding their relationship with
the Lord, but they are involvedin activities at their churches
, and so we help to point themin that direction as well.
We also like to help them withtheir in terms of when we have
song selection, for example,You're selecting songs and I had
(29:55):
one of our past students saidto me, just you know, in passing
, he said, ma'am, it is reallyinteresting that we played all
these songs and we've beenengaging these songs.
But see, gospel music issomething else.
You know, it's really somethingelse, it really changes you.
And that was interesting for meto know because he's playing
(30:19):
with bands outside of theprogram.
He's just doing his thingmusically.
He just finished his associatedegree at the Barbers Community
College and he's doing things,he's going places.
So he's seeing himself inspaces and doing things that if
he had not settled, he says Iwould not be here if I had not
(30:43):
settled down.
Grantley Martelly (30:44):
It's good to have those testimonies.
Are there other programs thatyou also run, or these two keep
you busy and at full capacity?
Clarine Cave (30:54):
Correct.
We are at full throttle rightnow.
There are things that I wouldlike for us to get into because,
again, music we provide thatexperience for these children.
It's an experience that, undernormal circumstances, a lot of
these kids would not experience.
They would not have had theexperience of playing an
(31:16):
instrument or going anywhere toget a lesson by some of the top
musicians in Barbados.
That would not happen for them,and we are glad to be able to
provide that for them at no costto them, because, again, if
these students had to pay to goto these classes, they would
probably not go right.
So there are other things thatwe would like to get into, but
(31:36):
we want to focus more on thisand continue to build this to
the point where it becomessustainable on its own without
having to have.
Well, we may still need funding, because we are a charity, we
don't make money so typically,what kind of cost is involved in
running a program like this?
Grantley Martelly (31:53):
do you do you have like, uh, the, obviously I
am assuming the, the foodinsecurity and the hampers, is
one separate program and thenthe, the music and arts, is a
separate program, fundedseparately and run separately.
So how do you keep this going?
Clarine Cave (32:14):
Well, we have to source funding.
So for our hamper distribution,for example, instead of what we
get in kind, it's like $30,000Barbados to do that for two
months for the amount offamilies that we try to cover,
the amount of schools that wetry to cover, amount of schools
(32:34):
that we try to cover.
And again, we are baby scrapingthe bucket when we talk about
how many schools we reach.
We're reaching 15 out of 20somebody schools, and this is
just secondary schools, it's noteven primary schools but 15
schools.
Grantley Martelly (32:46):
But how much?
How many people does thatactually represent?
That you're?
Clarine Cave (32:49):
helping.
So we get two families fromthose 15 schools.
Grantley Martelly (32:53):
So 30 families.
Clarine Cave (32:54):
Right.
And then we also have thefamilies that come from the
Child Care Board, where we willget probably 11 or so families,
and then there's the SunriseEarly Education Development
Center.
We also assist them.
This is children who may beautistic.
So we help those students aswell, those parents who have
(33:20):
autistic children who are inthat program.
We also help them with hampersas well.
That's about how many familiesas well.
That's about how many families.
That's last hamper distribution.
We did 77 families.
Grantley Martelly (33:37):
Total yes, 77 families total, and that's
every year.
Clarine Cave (33:44):
Yes, that's every year.
Grantley Martelly (33:46):
Okay, and you can do that with that $30,000
budget.
Yes, we can do that with that$30,000 budget.
Clarine Cave (33:52):
Yes, we can do that with that $30,000 budget.
Again, it's the essentials and,mind you, each family gets a
hamper for two months.
Grantley Martelly (34:07):
July and.
Clarine Cave (34:07):
August.
Well, so it's not 77 families,it's 77 hamper distributions 77
hampers Okay.
Yeah.
Grantley Martelly (34:17):
Yeah, or for the two months.
Clarine Cave (34:19):
Yes.
Grantley Martelly (34:21):
So then at the music program that's.
That's a separate thing that'stargeting 20 children right.
Clarine Cave (34:27):
Well, that was the pilot program.
We now have 40 studentsenrolled for the last two
cohorts.
Grantley Martelly (34:33):
We had in 2022 to 2024,.
Clarine Cave (34:37):
we had 40 students , and 33 of those students
completed the program.
Grantley Martelly (34:45):
Yeah, what happened?
Clarine Cave (34:49):
to the others.
Grantley Martelly (34:52):
Well, they dropped out for reasons.
Clarine Cave (34:53):
For different reasons they dropped out for
different reasons.
Grantley Martelly (34:54):
Yeah, for different reasons and how much
did that program cost you to run?
Clarine Cave (34:59):
well, it can go into the 100,000, 200,000 a year
and it's a two year programyeah, did that include
instruments and all of that?
Yes, because again, a year andit's a two-year program.
Yeah, did that includeinstruments and all of that?
Yes, because, again, well, wehave our catchment of
(35:21):
instruments now.
What we're working on now isbeing able to, for example, with
the guitars Students come andbecause they don't have a guitar
at home, it's hard for them topractice at home.
So we have to loan them theguitar.
But remember, if you come onTuesdays, you take the guitar,
the guy that's coming on Monday.
What is he going to use?
Grantley Martelly (35:42):
That's what condition is it coming back in?
Clarine Cave (35:44):
Yeah, the maintenance is high, as you
would imagine, but still I meanit's high initially until they
learn to care for them, untilthey learn to have a measure of
respect for their instrument.
Grantley Martelly (36:04):
Okay.
Clarine Cave (36:05):
Right.
And then there are instrumentsthat cost more than others.
So, for example, to buy a steelpan, we have to buy a steel pan
from Trinidad, and a steel panis going to cost us $1,500 US.
That's just the pan.
We also still have to get ithere, so we have to ship it.
We don't make instruments herein Barbados, so we have to ship
(36:26):
them from the US or ship themfrom Trinidad, and that is cost
that is incurred.
But our biggest cost more sothan the instruments itself is
our transportation costs,because we have to outsource the
drivers.
We don't have a vehicle.
We have to outsource thedrivers and a lot of the times
(36:53):
they're taxi drivers who aretaking off of a route or from
taking a regular job that theymay have, maybe at the airport
or whatever, and they don'tcharge us the fee that will be
charged to take each child totheir respective homes.
Wow so, but it's still high,right?
We have to consider the riseand fall of diesel and the fact
(37:15):
that we have drivers that aregoing as far as we're located in
Wildey and we have driversgoing as far as St Lucy to drop
off students on evening, orcoming from as far as St Peter
from Coleridge and PrairieSchool to Wildey on evenings.
Grantley Martelly (37:34):
So what other things do you want to share?
Clarine Cave (37:36):
Taking them to the south of the island as well.
So we have two sets oftransportation, one going to the
north and then one going to thesouth.
Grantley Martelly (37:43):
The distances that Clarine refers to are
about 13 miles in eitherdirection from the Partners that
Care headquarters.
Okay, yeah, so what otherthings do you want to share?
Clarine Cave (37:57):
The thing that I want the audience that is
listening to understand that alot of times we think that
things are bigger than us andthey can't be done.
I used to think that thisprogram was I still think that
it is.
Actually it was a hugeundertaking, but I know that.
(38:18):
I know that.
I know that because God is init, it's success is built on him
.
Yes, it's built on what we doand we have to report on
successes and challenges and howwe overcome the challenges.
But at the end of the day, thisis God ordained.
I believe that within my heart,because I could not have come
(38:39):
up with this.
I could not have come up withevery intricate part of this
program where the transportationis concerned, where kids come
and they're not focused and thereason why they're not focused
is because they haven't eatenand then to say, oh yeah, you
know what, let me find a waythat we can give them a snack on
evenings when they get here orafter they've been here.
(39:01):
So you get kids who get a snackbefore they do anything with
their tutors, or sometimes theyget it after.
But I would not have knownthese things if it wasn't.
You know, god, you knowprompting you that this could be
the issue.
A lot of times we we are metwith energy that your children
(39:22):
come with because of the thingsthey would have gone through
during the core of the day atschool, because it's an
after-school program.
So they're coming with all thatbaggage from what would have
transpired at school, whether itwas interaction with teachers
at school or whether it wasinteraction with another student
.
They're coming with a lot ofbaggage.
(39:42):
This has nothing to do with thehome environment.
So this is just coming fromschool, right, and we would not
have been able to navigate a lotof these things had it not been
God on our side to help us, toequip us, to help us to
strategize on how to reach thesechildren, how to break down
some of the walls, because thesechildren are dealing with a lot
(40:06):
of issues, right Fromabandonment from some of them,
homelessness, right.
There's one issue after theother and as children, they're
not getting to be children.
And then I have to go to school.
On focus, we had a student inour pilot program who was
looking after five youngersiblings, had to get up, get
(40:28):
them ready for school, take themto school before she went off
to school, and that was becomingtoo much of a burden for her.
Not that her parent wasn'ttrying to help, but the parent
had to go off to work, andsometimes early, early in the
morning, so she was left as acaregiver for the other siblings
.
So again, it seems sometimeslike it is really bigger than we
(40:53):
are.
But prayer, but God, andtherefore I ride on that
consistently.
Sometimes I write my proposalsand my budget seem like I don't
know how people are going togive to this.
I don't know where this moneyis going to be coming from.
And then God shows up.
(41:14):
So don't put your dreams aside,don't lay them down.
Trust God, have faith that hecan do more than you think he
can do.
If it's too big for you tohandle, then it is a God, it's a
God project, it's a Godassignment.
Grantley Martelly (41:33):
Yeah, if you can do it yourself, you don't
need any help.
Clarine Cave (41:35):
I'm telling you you don't need God.
Grantley Martelly (41:39):
So I mean, this has been very interesting
discussion and people may bewondering wow, how do we help
and how do we get involved?
And there's a number of ways Iwant to transition to now right
now.
But Partners that Care has awebsite, their own website, that
you can look them up onpartnersthatcareinternationalorg
(41:59):
.
Partnersthatcareinternationalorg.
And you can give to theorganization to that website.
If you're in the United Statesor outside of the Caribbean, we
(42:20):
my wife and I has a nonprofitcalled Shonky global that we
have set up and that will beable to assist this organization
, and that website is S H O N GI globalorg S-H-O-N-G-I dot org
and you can donate there and wecan get that to the organization
(42:43):
as well, if you choose.
And that's a 501c3 organizationregistered in the United States
, so your contribution could betax deductible if you want.
That's a 501c3 organizationregistered in the United States,
so your contributions could betax deductible if you want them
to be tax deductible.
We just wanted to let you knowthat there's a relationship
there and we wanted to get thisword out to you that this
(43:10):
organization, partners that CareInternational, is doing
phenomenal work in Barbados,helping these young people,
these families, in ways thatmany of them would not
necessarily be able to get, andsometimes we in the United
States or in Europe we havecertain ways of doing things,
but they don't always translatewhen you get into other
(43:32):
countries.
So we'll try to help from thisside and try to get the funds to
them, but also realizing thateven on an island nation like
Barbados, which is not very big,there are big issues and big
challenges that need to beaddressed.
And every child we can help,wherever they are in the world,
(43:53):
is a child whose potential wecan get to see become what God
created them to be, and lettheir future not be determined
by the circumstances in whichthey find themselves, and help
them to understand that wherethey are now does not
necessarily mean that's wherethey're going to be in the
future, but we can help thembuild a brighter future.
(44:15):
So, clarine, thank you for thework that you're doing, thank
you for PartnersCare, thank youfor persisting and working
through all the things to makesomething like this work.
We will do whatever we can tohelp you, and if you're out
there in the Caribbean, you cangive to
partnerscareinternationalorg,and if you're in the United
(44:36):
States or Europe or other placesoutside the Caribbean, you can
give to shangiglobalorg and justdesignate it for Partners that
Care International, and we willmake sure it gets there.
Also, you can write us at abovethe noise 24, above the noise
(44:56):
24 at gmailcom, and we can get amessage and we can get the
email to clarine.
Uh, clarine, I don't know ifyou want to share your email or
if you prefer to come from us,but that's up to you.
Clarine Cave (45:10):
Yeah, my email address is ccave and it's a long
thing at partners that careinternational.
So it's ccave at partners thatcare international dot org.
Grantley Martelly (45:24):
Well, thank you.
Any closing remarks?
Clarine Cave (45:28):
We really appreciate any assistance that
we can get and for those who maywant to give, they don't
necessarily have to givefinancially, but they can give
in their prayers, they can givein kind.
If you have an instrument thatyou want to dust off and you
know, box it up and send it tous, whether you are here in the
region or in the US.
(45:48):
We would appreciate that a lotbecause we need to help our
students as much as we can.
So thank you very much forlistening and thanks, stu, for
having me.
Grantley Martelly (45:59):
You're welcome.
My pleasure to have you.
Remember to subscribe and leaveus a rating.
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.
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(46:22):
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