Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
Stacey Ann Blackstock, 16, from Admiral Town, during a speech and drama session in last month's south St. Andrew peace camp centre, held at the Enid Anglin Community Centre, Admiral Town.
WITH OVER 900 people murdered since the start of the year, some community organisations are running summer programmes to empower youth in volatile communities.
The programmes are geared at providing children with more positive means of expressing their emotions. Among those staging camps this year is Revolutionary Artistic Global Expressions (RAGE), an organisation that works to institute violence prevention programmes.
The organisation's annual peace camp ended on Monday at the Enid Anglin Community Centre in south St. Andrew with an Open Day. "The response has been overwhelming," said RAGE executive director, Vuraldo Barnett.
"It's a violence prevention programme and it's aiming at tackling the eventual shottas," Mr. Barnett explained.
EMPHASIS ON THE ARTS
RAGE is mostly self-funded and targets children in the south St. Andrew communities of Admiral Town, Jones Town, Craig Town and Trench Town. The camp caters to children aged four to 16 years old and was first staged last year amid gang warfare in south St. Andrew.
The camp places emphasis on the performing and visual arts and sports as a channel for the children's feelings about violence.
"We show them how to express their rage through artistic expressions," Mr. Barnett said.
Sixteen-year-old Tracey-Ann Murray, from Benbow Street in south St. Andrew, said she is pleased with the programme because violence nearly forced her and her family from the community. She said the programme has been helping to keep violence under control.
"It helps to cool down the violence because it brings peace, and when there is peace the place is quiet," she said.
RECEPTIVE PARENTS
Mr. Barnett said support for the camp came from the community and south St. Andrew Member of Parliament Dr. Omar Davies, who subsidised lunches. But apart from the MP's input, most support came from the south St. Andrew communities.
"Last year, the support was from peacekeepers outside the community; this year, instead of getting people from outside we used people from inside the community," explained Mr. Barnett. All of the camp's 17-member staff, which includes four trained teachers, are from the constituency, he emphasised.
Parents have also been very receptive to the programme, he explained. "On "Monday at the Open Day the turn out, in terms of the community and parents, was overwhelming. Last year, most parents just dropped off their children, but this year most of them stayed and viewed the displays," he said.
Despite the overwhelming support from community and parents, there were drawbacks that prevented the camp from reaching all its target audience. Mr. Barnett blames the introduction of weekly fees for the set back. As a result, only 88 children attended the camp as opposed to the 150 it targeted.
But support did come from other sources, such as Creations Lab Limited, which provided scholarships to 50 participants on the camp to study computer skills at their computer lab. The National Commercial Bank Foundation supported the scholarships, valued at over $500,000.
