One of several shacks in the marginalised Canaan Heights community in Clarendon. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

With the Clarendon homicide toll hitting 51 since January, many residents have been living in perpetual fear. Others are enduring pain and sorrow.

Nathaniel Jacksonhas also been affected by the scourge of violence sweeping through Clarendon.

Jackson lost his brother to crime in December 2007 and a cousin three months ago, both tragedies shattering his sense of security.

Jackson's wife and children have undergone a series of counselling sessions and he is still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Nuff time everything just come back to mi. Right now, me have to try and avoid some areas," he explained. "It is just the grace of God that is keeping me, or maybe I would go crazy," he said in a hushed tone.

Harsh reality of everyday life

Jackson told The Gleaner he was very depressed as he reflected on the tragedies in his life. At several points, he came close to tears, speaking about the harsh reality of everyday life which affected him and several other residents of marginalised communities.

He labelled unemployment a key factor fuelling the violence which had hit close to home. Jackson stated that what started out as a battle for power has escalated into a string of reprisals.

create employment for the youths

Afraid to call names, Jackson recalled that one don, resident in the United States, had started a few car washes to create employment for the youths in the area. However, another party living in England viewed the move as a takeover bid, believing "some of his loyalists had switched allegiance".

There are no social programmes in the area and input from the business sector is non-existent, he said. The area is also woefully underdeveloped with no facilities for entertainment. "You don't even have a little park so you and your family can go and sit down on a Sunday evening," Jackson lamented.

Jackson's pain and yearning is shared by Iona Hall, who lives in Canaan Heights. Her one-room shack is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and overgrown shrubbery. Beside her shack is a patch of land on which she and her elderly mother cultivate some tomatoes.

"I need help, I live in one bedroom and we need help, it is me and my mother living and I don't have anyone to help me, I even have my aunt funeral in MoBay to attend and I don't have any money to go," she said.

Hall told The Gleaner that there were few employment opportunities for persons in the area.

Solutions to Canaan Heights' problems

Several youths with whom The Gleaner spoke posited solutions to Canaan Heights' problems.

"We need a trade centre in the area, nuff youths inna the ghetto willing to work but nah nuh skill," a short, dark-haired young man said.

"Like all me sah, me na no bill fi pick up inna the Friday a come, so me haffi hustle some scrap metal, the bug community centre siddown de and there is no equipment inside," another said.

Lack of opportunity leaves marginalised youth vulnerable to crime, he said. "When you nah nuh work, you idle and a so di war start. If dem did have suppen a do, den them wouldn' have to time fi war, no crime would'n' gwaan," the young man concluded.

Not his real name