DONNA Duncan-Scott, executive director of the Jamaica Money Market Brokers, yesterday urged parents to love and support their children unconditionally.

She was addressing the 53rd Annual Parents Conference/General Meeting of the Jamaica Association on Mental Retardation (JAMR) at the Girls Guide headquarters in Kingston.

A mother holds her son during the Annual Parents Conference/ General Meeting at the Girls Guide headquarters in Kingston yesterday. The event was held under the theme 'Parents: Empowered for Action' and was aimed at motivating parents to become actively involved in the development of their children with intellectual disability. (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

Scores of parents turned up to get tips on how to become more active in the development of their children with disabilities.

"Parents need to understand and to realise that they have a choice to make the best of their situation," said Duncan Scott, who was the guest speaker at the event.

"You have to love your children first and then they will shine," she added.

Most parents at the event were in full agreement, saying the work of the JAMR had led them to realise that they were blessed.

"To see where I am coming from, and to see where I am today," began Jenny Facey. "My son has autism (and) at one point I had to quit my job just to take care of him. And to now realise that I have a choice, is a wonderful feeling," Facey said.

Facey was supported by another mother, who said she had to quit her job to care for her young daughter who had been raped and who had become sick. But with the counselling from organisations such as the JAMR, the woman said she was motivated to the point where she decided to open a business to take care of her family.

The men were also out in their numbers.

Donavan Reynolds, a St Mary resident, explained that his grandchild was disabled, and it was organisations such as the JAMR that had helped him and his family to accept their situation and to realise that they had a choice "to not let the world and its angry remarks" affect their lives.

The JAMAR was founded in 1956 by Randolph Lopez, a parent of a child with Down's syndrome. It collaborates with the Ministry of Education to manage island-wide 27 schools of special education and provides a number of intervention programmes.