JAM CAN Program Canada World Youth Jamaican Social Development Commission
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The Challenge

"The Challenge" is a one hour documentary about a group of Canadian and Jamaican youth who participated in an international youth linkage program called Jam/Can. The video focuses on how two young people, one of them Canadian, the other a Jamaican, and how they confronted the challenges associated with living and working in a new culture and a foreign country. While the focus is on two youths, we get to know the whole group and how it is coping with the many challenges.

Tracey Clements is a young woman from the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, Canada. Kevin McNally is from Albert Town in rural Jamaica. The video follows the two from the time they began preparing for their international experience, to their last days in the program. While Tracey overcomes a variety of obstacles and completes the eight month program, Kevin is not so lucky. He does not complete the first phase of the program and is "de-selected" and sent home from Newfoundland.

The challenges faced by the young people range from apprehension about leaving familiar surroundings and going overseas, to adapting to the lifestyles and odd rules and customs of host families in a foreign country, to confronting racist slurs and innuendos. There are concerns that they are losing their individuality to the group, questions about their own values, and musings over what this experience will mean for the rest of their lives. Tracey, who has some African American ancestry, is very much at home in Jamaica. She 'hangs out' with the locals, and wants to return to Jamaica. Kevin is confronted about his view of relationships with women, and his notions of punctuality.

The Canadian young men and women were selected from various areas of the country and each lived with host families and worked in pairs with a counterpart from Jamaica. They spent four months working in Newfoundland and then they traveled to Jamaica where they spent another four. The counterpart pairs worked as volunteers in schools, colleges, libraries, hospitals, and with community groups. In Newfoundland, Tracey worked in a literacy program, while Kevin worked among Alzheimer patients. In Jamaica, Tracey worked at an elementary school.

In addition to their work placements, the youth studied a variety of social issues (such as violence against women), and helped in a variety of community projects, such as planting trees, painting libraries, and cleaning streets and green areas.

Shot in rural Jamaica, and rural Newfoundland, the video consists of a series of 'actualities' or real situations in which the subjects are engaged in work, social, and recreational activities. The backdrop is the beautiful countryside of Jamaican cockpit country, and Western Newfoundland.

The video was shot and edited on Digital Video Cassette and mastered on DVCAM, a professional Digital Video format, DVCPRO and BETACAM SP. It can be copied for use by broadcasters and others on any format, including BetaCam.

The Jam/Can Program is a joint effort of Canada World Youth and the Social Development Commission of Jamaica.

The video is a production of College of the North Atlantic, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, and the Belize Newfoundland Linkage Committee.

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Last Updated December 19, 1999
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