Joseph Cunningham, Gleaner Writer
Dr. Omar Davies (second left), Minister of Finance and Planning, as well as presidential candidate for the governing People's National Party, Bishop Herro Blair (second right), religious leader and Political Ombudsman, and Rev. Garnett Roper, listen intently to Donna Duncan Scott, former head of Jamaica Money Market Brokers, during a meeting with South St. Andrew pastors at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, on Friday. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
GUNMEN FIRED 10,000 rounds of ammunition per week in 2005, according to Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, of the Denham Town Police Station.
Superintendent Hewitt was speaking at a breakfast meeting hosted on Friday by Dr. Omar Davies, Member of Parliament for the constituency of South St. Andrew.
The breakfast featured a gathering of pastors from within the constituency and leaders of the police force, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston.
"The Church and the state are working together in an effort to stem the ongoing upsurge of violence in the South St. Andrew constituency," Dr. Davies said during the meeting. "If we can improve the standard of living in South St. Andrew, it is possible for all Jamaican communities."
CLEAN-UP DRIVE
He noted that, at the end of last year's hurricane season, the Government allotted $2 million to each MP across the island through the Lift Up Jamaica programme for a clean-up drive.
" I decided that I would try to use this opportunity to harmonise the residents of my constituency. Therefore, I gathered the pastors within the community, and requested their views as to how the money should be utilised."
The Lift Up Jamaica programme was established to remedy the unemployment crisis, which exists among Jamaican citizens ages 18 to 35.
Dr. Davies and a body of pastors administered the programme, labelled the 'Social intervention programme', in December 2005. It was considered a 'work in progress' centred on unemployed residents within the community administering the clean-up.
"When the clean-up drive (began), vehicular traffic was noticeably hindered from venturing to certain areas of the community," said Pastor Bobby Wilmot, community liaison officer for the programme. "This was because of the ongoing gang feuds. The initiative was taken one step further when Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields was brought in and he removed the blockades."
He said that, since then, the presence of the police has reaped a relative calm within the South St. Andrew constituency.
