‘Me no have nobody’ - Poor youth dreams of becoming a chef

For years, Malik Walker grew up with his grandmother's love and care, as all he knew of his parents were stories of their death.

But at age 16, he was taken to a children's home in Kingston at the request of his grandmother who feared for his life.

Problems had surfaced in his community of Font Hill, St Thomas, and she believed getting him out was the only way to keep him alive. Two years later, in 2017, Walker left the children's home as he had reached 18. But while travelling to reunite with his grandmother, he received the news that she had passed some time before.

Instead of returning home to love and care, he only found the grave of the woman who had mothered him.

"She give me everything. She have me from me a baby ... me know her as me mother and she never leave me yet ... not even fi love or money. Me miss her because right now me coulda have everything," Walker told THE STAR. "Me bawl the whole day and night. Me sorry me grandmother dead but God know best. When me go a the grave, me bawl and me eye water drop pon the grave."

All out of family and support, he left Font Hill and went to Yallahs to stay with a friend, where he has been 'kotching' since.

"Me neva have nowhere fi stay. I used to help out a lady and she tell me say me can stay at her house," he said.

Fell on hard times

Walker had stopped attending school at age 14 when his grandmother fell on hard times. For two years, he sat at home unschooled.

"Right now, me have a food practical (to do) and me nuh have no help. Me grandmother pass off and me no have nobody else. Me a beg anybody fi help me," he said.

He attends cooking classes at Yallahs High School but doesn't have the right uniform.

"The special shirt, a $2,500 for it downtown. Me no have the shoes, blank pants or nothing, me need fi complete the course," he said.

Currently, he is also pursuing City and Guilds certificates in mathematics and English at a centre in St Thomas, but this is being stalled by a lack of cash.

"Me woulda like fi deh a school a do test, but me nuh have no help. If a even fi get a bicycle so me can ride go school because most times I don't have no fare," he said.

On Tuesday, he left St Thomas to beg for assistance from strangers in downtown Kingston. He even slept in the St William Grant Park. Without food, he only had a bag with clothes and a malfunctioning, outmoded cell phone.

"Some days me afi go without food ... me just afi drink water. If anybody can help me, I would love that. Me just wah go school," he said.

Anyone willing to assist Malik Walker can contact him at 876-221-5289 or 876-317-0759.