JCF Strengthens Peace in Schools Campaign

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) will be merging the National Safe Schools’ Peace Day Concert with the Peace for Champs initiative this year in order to strengthen the message of peace in schools.

Students from over 60 schools have been invited to participate in the concert to be staged on March 6 at Mandela Park in St. Andrew.

Speaking with JIS News, National Safe Schools and Training Coordinator, Sergeant Tanecia Johnson, said the merger will allow students from across the island to come together, while reinforcing the JCF efforts to spread peace in order to prevent crime and violence.

“The Peace for Champs campaign is focused around Kingston and St. Andrew while the Peace Day Concert and activities engage young people from all across the island, so the merger is bringing everyone under one umbrella. We don’t want to give the impression that they are different messages. All we want is peace among our youth,” she noted.

She said the collaboration will also ensure that stakeholders and other interest groups, such as the Peace and Love in Society (PALS), can share resources in promoting peace and unity.

The Peace Day concert is part of a month of activities under the theme ‘To Reach Peace, To Teach Peace, Peace Wi Seh’.

“This is the fifth staging of the annual flagship event and… the objective is for the students to know how to handle conflicts and steps they can take to reach peace,” Sergeant Johnson noted.

Peace for Champs, instituted in 2008, aims to foster harmony among schools prior to, during and immediately following the annual Boys and Girls’ Championships.

Sergeant Johnson told JIS News that the campaign to promote peace has been working.

“Years gone by, you would never have rivaling schools interacting, so the campaign has fostered and encouraged camaraderie among schools, which is necessary during Champs season,” she noted.