With Jamaica's crime rate maintaining its infamous trend, with over 150 persons killed since the start of the year, the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) has launched a campaign for peace with the aim of spreading its theme 'Peace for Prosperity'.

The campaign this month will seek to capture and install the elusive 'peace' in several communities beset by crime and violence.

The 'peace month' will start on tomorrow with a community sports day and peace rally at the Spanish Town Road Depot in St. Catherine and culminate with a major march for peace in Kingston on Peace Day, March 4.

Uphold love and peace

VPA member Professor Barry Chevannes, in trumpeting the benefits of the month, said that, in a society where murders and deviancy have become a norm in life, it was time that Jamaicans stood up for love and peace.

"We need to arrest this deteriorating standard of aggression and violence that causes so much pain. What we need is not more policemen or women they are important, but by all of us coming together in a movement of peace."

The month, which is being sponsored by the Healthy Lifestyle Project in the Ministry of Health, United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), Peace and Love in Schools (PALS) and the Jamaica National Building Society Foundation, will focus on communities in west Kingston, east Kingston, as well as other communities.