Uniformed groups appeal for more support
Published:Friday | October 28, 2022 | 12:08 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
AGAINST THE background of Education Minister Fayval Williams’ plan to have greater engagement with uniformed groups, Jamaica Boys’ Brigade President Sydney England has appealed for state assistance, saying it needs a budget of approximately $15 million annually.
The brigade is oftentimes forced to stage fundraisers to keep its operations afloat to engage around 1,600 boys islandwide. It also depends on donations from companies or churches.
“They (the Government) used to give us $350,000 a year. Over the last three years or so, we have gotten nothing, so that can’t do anything,” England told The Gleaner on Sunday.
Financing, he said, covers salaries, training, travelling, stationery, project implementation, and maintenance.
“There’s a lot of cost maintenance of the building, paying electricity, the statutory utilities [such as] telephone [and] water. Those sort of things to start initially ... . At the national level, you want to have all-island training, five to six training per year,” said the boys’ brigade president.
“Now, with what is happening in the schools, we are delving into counselling, so we might have to get a counsellor to go, and we will have to pay the person. While they may not take what a regular counsellor would charge you, you have to make some contribution, unless you’re going to get persons out of the Church who will say they will give two hours or an hour each week, to come and sit at the office and train the boys,” he further explained.
He said “volunteerism is being dried up” in the boys’ brigade.
England also told The Gleaner that another meeting should be held with Williams to iron out a consensual approach to the fight against crime and antisocial values in schools.
He was speaking with The Gleaner after the annual Founders’ Day Church Service at the East Queen Street Baptist Church in downtown Kingston on Sunday.
However, Pastor Dane Fletcher, youth & chaplaincy and public campus ministries director, said the Seventh-day Adventist Church is raring to go and will not seeking to charge the Ministry of Education and Youth for its involvement.
“That’s something that’s already on the table with us and the Ministry of Education [and Youth]. In terms of the challenges that we face, we actually have volunteers who stand ready to provide some form of leadership and support,” Fletcher said.
“In fact, some time ago, we had a meeting of persons who were ready and, overall, we might have over 150 persons combined who stand ready to be active participants. In fact, some of our master guides, who really provide leadership for Pathfinders, they are already teachers in some of the public schools, so they stand ready to provide that kind of support. So it would not be a heavy financial burden or cost to the system, excepting for volunteers who might need some form of assistance with transportation,” he said.
Last Wednesday, during the launch of a new campaign called ‘Just Medz It’ at the Wolmer’s Boys’ School, Williams announced that 16,000 students in 25 primary and high schools located in zones of special operations will be targeted for behavioral intervention later this month.
Williams also announced that an Inter-Ministerial 25-School Strategy will be operationalised as part of the Ministry of Education and Youth’s strategy to curb crime in schools. The goal of the campaign is to reduce the incidence of violence in schools by 50 per cent by November 2023.
In 2019 alone, 560 persons age 12-19 were arrested for category-one crimes. These included 85 for murder; 83 for shooting; 89 for rape; 43 for aggravated assault; 117 for robbery; 120 for break-ins; and 23 for larceny.
The minister of education and youth called for the Jamaica Council of Churches and related bodies, which include the boys’ brigade and Pathfinder groups, to play a part in rescuing vulnerable children.
“Today, I want to call on each and every one of you to encourage your classmates to join a uniformed group. We have 327 schools that have one of more uniformed groups; some almost 14,000 students ... . We have almost 1,000 schools in Jamaica, so there is still significant effort to be made. Take this on as your something very big,” Williams said.
“In all of our schools we have parents, and we are calling on our parents to step forward, volunteer to be trained in one of these uniformed groups,” she added.
At the service, Lieutenant Colonel Oral Khan, chairman of the Uniformed Youth Groups Secretariat, said that the uniformed groups stand ready to accept the challenge to help Jamaica.
He said the first occasion is on November 6 and the second on November 23, starting with a parade in St Catherine.
“We’re being called on in several areas to be of service as a collective uniformed group. We have been called to support the 10,000 Man March over in St Catherine, and we are calling on all our uniformed groups to respond to this call, to show our support for ending violence, especially violence among our youngsters and violence in schools,” Khan said.
“I am using this platform to say to our uniformed groups, in case the word has not reached, ‘Be prepared to respond’,” he warned.
Khan also called on the people of St Catherine to take a stand against crime.
“Sufficient persons are not engaged in supporting the work of the uniformed groups ... . By helping to train our youth and develop sound character, good discipline, integrity in our youngsters ... . We seek to train and instil core principles of honour, courage, service, commitment [and] integrity; and these are values which we really need to see more of in our youngsters of today, and especially among our young men,” Khan said.
He, too, said more persons are needed to help the youth groups with leadership and urged more adults to get involved.
Earlier this year, the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force implored the Government to boost its budget, so that the organisation can effectively carry out its functions and help steer at-risk youth away from crime. Khan said the pandemic has added further pressure on their ability to continue operations, which has resulted in disruptions.
“It has been difficult for our uniformed groups, coming out of the pandemic, to ramp back up and get operational again. It has been challenging,” he said.