About

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Evelyn Mason (photographed left) is a former gangster. Ask about her past and she will answer in completely unabashed terms. She doesn’t deny a thing.

In Jamaica there is a lot of resentment towards deportees whose actions have damaged the reputation of the country and made it harder for its citizens to travel and work overseas.

Sent back to Jamaica, with many having spent most of their life abroad and now cut-off from their families, reintegration can be extremely challenging.

Deportees are frequently blamed for rising crime in inner city areas of Kingston and St. Andrew while others, more plainly, struggle beneath the poverty line.

Now an evangelist preacher and Executive Director of the ‘Land of Our Birth’ Association (LOB), Evelyn does what she can to help them settle back into Jamaican society. It is hard work, financed only by her preaching and motivational talking. The Church and Food for the Poor also help out.

LOB originated as a joint vision between Evelyn, Cornerstone Ministries and Portmore Gospel Assembly, later assisted by two New York pastors Bishop Laverne Sinclair and Reverend Scarlett. They helped the organisation gain office accommodation within the Department of Corrections.

Among others Reverend Garnett Roper and the Portmore Missionary Church also provided financial assistance for Evelyn’s mission.

Her work can be as essential as delivering food packages to deportees. Whatever she, and a few volunteers can do to help, they do. However the work urgently needs greater financial assistance.

LOB has three main objectives:

1. Re-integrate deportees into society through employment, personal and spiritual transformation.

2. Build a deportee database to include their address, contact details, job skills and other details.

3. De-stigmatise deportees. A Government of Jamaica study has shown that only six per cent of deportees offend yet the public perception is much higher. Therefore members of the public also need to be educated about the issue.

“It’s important to support these individuals to prevent them falling into crime or poverty. Instead we can help them become productive members of society, join the Church and of course, find a job to support themselves and their families. I appeal to families of deportees to support them after they have come back.”

- Evelyn Mason, 01.12.08

For more information or to contribute to Land of My Birth, contact:

Evelyn Mason
Executive Director
Land of My Birth
c/o Department of Correctional Services
12-14 Lockett Avenue
Kingston 4
Jamaica
Office phone: +1 (876) 922-2682
Cellular phone: +1 (876) 418-0457
Email: evangelistmason@gmail.com