Fayval Williams makes indelible stamp in communities

Don’t be fooled by her unassuming demeanour or soft-spoken tone; she is as brilliant as she is hard-working, and able to get the job done. A chartered financial analyst, Fayval Williams would definitely not be everyone’s first choice for a politician; she appears to be more suited for corporate corridors.

She spent several years in the United States studying to achieve graduate and postgraduate degrees at the prestigious Wharton School of Business and Harvard University before returning to Jamaica. She was a vice-president of Putnam Investments and Wellington Management Company in Boston, as well as a fixed income analyst at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Back at home, the Ferncourt High School past student was executive director of Kingston Properties and chief investment officer of JMMB Limited before being elected to serve the St Andrew Eastern constituency. She has served on several boards and authored many papers.

But having settled in, she continued to be a strategic thinker and understood how to prepare for her present role. For many years,Williams, who resides in her constituency, was president of her citizens’ association, having stepped up to help fill a need that she had seen, and knowing that citizens ought to take on initiatives that improve their communities.

She quietly went about encouraging the community to take care of their verges; advocated the members of parliament on various issues; and even intervened to prevent a housing development from coming into the area, in addition to doing the usual fundraisers.

“During that time, I got to know then MP (later caretaker) St Aubyn Bartlett, caretaker and councillor, very well and sought assistance. Community focus is something that I have been doing for many years and because of my active involvement and interaction with the political directorate, there were things that irked me about how the people’s business was done,” she said.

“If you are the MP, you are the one charged to do things, don’t tell me to go find someone else, I was not interested in that,” Williams said as she chronicled her journey to political representation. She established a relationship with Bartlett and she became more involved with the Jamaica Labour Party and learnt more about politics. “When I learnt that there was an opening for a caretaker in St Andrew Eastern, I stepped forward,” Williams said.

She received encouragement from her husband and family, so she hit the ground working for some two and a half years in the constituency before the elections.

Achievements

To date, Williams has an impressive scorecard of achievements in her constituency, having hit the ground by tackling the people’s issues and letting them know what she could or could not do. The most pressing needs of the innercity were infrastructure and youth unemployment, so her first activity after winning the election was a job fair to get youth trained for interviews, preparing résumés and assisting with job placement.

“I utilised people in the human resources field to help prepare them. There were thousands of unemployed and today the number is lower, because we helped to place them in jobs by creating a database of what was available and matching them with available persons. To sustain it, we put computers in a community centre in Back Bush, where the building’s roof was repaired, the floor tiled, walls painted and bathrooms fixed with the help of Constituency Development Fund. The Universal Service Fund put in 20 computers with Internet access, then HEART and Sutherland Global came in with training,” she explained.

“Young men interested in construction were given a blueprint reading course that was so well received, another one will be done soon; the centre in Back Bush is mainly used for conducting courses for residents. The grounds were paved and a multipurpose court was installed. Tae kwon do lessons are being taught to children, and all the bad roads in the area were also fixed in a massive road repair programme. The neighbouring community will soon be addressed,” Williams says.

In Standpipe, roads that had not been fixed in decades were done under Williams’ watch, also in Hermitage, and unsightly zinc fences in the latter community have been replaced with concrete fences.

She says Jarrett Lane needs attention and is to be addressed soon as will Chambers Lane,which will have its zinc fence removal programme coming on stream soon. The August Town main road, which was in a deplorable state when she took office, has since been void of potholes and other roads have been fixed, fulfilling an election campaign commitment. Other roads have also been addressed.

“We have taken a special interest in August Town Primary School and advocated with the Ministry Of Education to pave the grounds, do electrical upgrading work and install fans in the classrooms. We also put a massive perimeter wall around the school to prevent gunmen from running across the grounds,” Williams adds.

Williams, who has found the journey thus far to be fulfilling and rewarding, both on the political side and in the Government, believes that “if people see and experience what you’re doing, they will be more disposed to giving you a second chance”.

Unlike many MPs who begin to work close to an election, that’s not her style – she is on the ground before and after elections.