Good Hope exhales - Rural communities take charge of their destiny
Published:Saturday | July 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Patrina Pink, Gleaner Intern
FOR YEARS, criminals ran to the communities nestled in the Good Hope range in the Blue Mountains, using the quiet rural districts as footstools for the launch of illegal activities and cover for their transgressions.
In that time they robbed, killed and taught local boys to do the same. However, a new day has dawned in Good Hope; one filled with promise as residents in this little east rural St Andrew area prepare to take the script from the hands of criminal outsiders and write their own destiny.
Faced with the imminent threat to life and livelihood, groups within the range, which includes Dallas Castle, Bito, Constitution Hill, Hall's Delight and Cane River, put their heads and heart together to form the Good Hope Partners' Benevolent Society.
Yesterday, the society opened the Dallas Castle Skills Training Centre with the help of the Digicel Foundation. The foundation facilitated the refurbishing and partitioning of the centre. Previously just one large open room, the centre now boasts a hospitality room, a computer lab office and three fully furnished bathrooms.
The hope is that the centre will train the area's large unskilled population so that they can become employable.
Scaling down crime
Chairman of the society, Kevin Clark, says that his organisation and the skills centre it resurrected have been critical to scaling down the crime problem in the area.
"The society was formed out of the need to address crime and violence and unemployment. Since we've had the skills centre and the programme, we've seen a reduction in crime," he said.
Yesterday's opening day served as a fun day for the community, and one that they had not seen for some time. The children were treated to merry-go-round rides, bounceabouts and a waterslide, among other childish delights.
It was a far cry from the terror of the not-so-distant past.
"Five years ago you wouldn't see people on the streets like this. The grass (on the playing field) was so high that you couldn't see a cow if it was standing up,'' said Clark.
Dallas Castle, a prominent community in the Good Hope range, had been the scene of several murders in recent years. There have been cases of persons being shot and their bodies burnt.
Residents say they are now seeing brighter days. They say that crime, though still an issue, is less of the gorilla it once was.
They hail the increased entrepreneurial and skill's training initiative as being responsible for the change in their communities, and said residents now have a great chance to remove themselves from the rural poverty the Good Hope range is steeped in.
Andrea Hall-Jackson is a resident of Dallas Castle. The shopkeeper is eager to begin her training in housekeeping and information technology.
"It's a great opportunity for me and the other women of the community. Even if some people get to high school, they either drop out because they get pregnant or some other reason," Hall-Jackson said.
Inspired by other women
She said she has been inspired by other women in the community who enrolled in programmes offered by the HEART Trust/NTA and have been able to get employment overseas. She hopes to do the same.
The Good Hope Benevolent Society has also pointed to the work of Rise Life Management, formerly Addiction Alert, that has facilitated the training of 15 bee-keepers in the community. Virgin Atlantic and the Travel Foundation have recently contributed to the cause, expanding the training pool of bee-keepers to 25.
The community is also doing big things in the field of agro-processing. The Jamaica Business Development Corporation is helping residents to finalise business models, as well as the marketing of an array of jams and other fruit-based products.
Good Hope now looks forward to the day when their agro-processing ventures can become completely self-sustained by using solar energy to power all the centre's initiatives.
Robert Neish, executive director of the Digicel Foundation, is confident that the residents of Good Hope will be successful in their pursuits to free their community from crime and poverty. He says that the highly organised methods employed by the leaders have been instrumental in getting Good Hope this far.
"Their quality and commitment to uplift the community is wonderful," said Neish.