The Editor, Sir:
As I read the many articles and letters on the crime situation and the possible solutions, I think about the critical and important role that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play in Jamaica's crime and drug prevention efforts. The agency that I am privileged to lead - RISE Life Management Services - has, for the past five years, provided remedial education, life management and parenting skills training, youth leadership training and adult literacy classes for approximately 1000 participants from the volatile communities of Allman Town, Parade Gardens (better known as Tel Aviv and South side) Tower Hill, Drewsland, Waterhouse and Fletchers Land.
These interventions take place daily in the communities, and the children involved in the remedial programme are provided with food and other incentives as encouragement to participate on a regular basis. When there is a flare-up of violence in the communities, the programme participants risk their lives by crossing the borders daily so as not to miss their classes. Last month, three of our youth trainers, while delivering food and materials to the community venue, experienced first-hand the aftermath of a shooting in Allman Town. When they offered in take the woman lying on the road with a bullet wound in her head to the hospital, no one would accompany them, not even her own relatives, for fear of reprisal.
The funding for this programme, which involves five other NGOs, comes to an end in July 2008. The intervention, Citizen Security and Justice programme, is currently administered through the Ministry of National Security with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Jamaica. With all the talk of the importance of the re-socialisation and the need to provide our inner-city youth with alternatives to a life of crime, why aren't the NGOs who have the expertise to provide these much needed services being called on and supported financially to provide the services so critical to solving the social side of the problem?
Finding a solution
I am appealing to those Jamaicans living abroad who want to help to become a part of the solution, to find out about the many NGOs working assiduously on the ground in very challenging circumstances to provide the services that the Government is unable to support. We might not be able to rehabilitate all those who already live by the gun, but at least we can provide the support needed to prevent those who are at risk, but haven't yet stepped through the gate of no return. You can visit RISE's website at www.rise jamaica.org or email us at rise@cwjamaica.com and help us to provide the opportunities and hope for the most vulnerable among us.
I am, etc.,
SONITA MORIN ABRAHAMS
Executive Director
RISE Life Management Services
57 East Street, Kingston
