Coral Gardens victims elderly care facility’s future uncertain

Pamela Rowe-Williams, secretary of the Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society (RCGBS), is worried that the future of an elderly care facility, rented to house survivors of the 1963 police massacre and used as office for the society, is in limbo.

Her concerns were raised in a July 2019 letter to National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, a copy of which was obtained by The Gleaner. She backed claims by Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) that it has not received a copy of the social enquiry report done by the public defender and delivered to the Office of the Prime Minister.

She has also raised concerns that estimates for lots at Albion Heights, which are intended to be used as the permanent elderly care facility and an office, may also fall by the wayside as there has been no response to the society’s correspondence to Chang in March, and followed up with a May 21, 2019, letter.

She said there is now uncertainty about the future of the $160,000 monthly rental for the house in Norwood that is currently used as a temporary elderly care facility for which the culture ministry has approved a year’s rental.

Other aspects of compensation, such as land for agricultural purposes and scholarships to benefit children of the wider Rastafari community, have also not been addressed, she said.

– Erica Virtue