Residents of Flankers Encouraged to Support Peace Mobile

Residents of Flankers in St. James are being encouraged to support the Peace Mobile on Peace Day, March 4, as part of activities to promote non- violence and social change.
Co-ordinator of the Citizen Security and Justice Programme, Simeon Robinson, told JIS News that this was an appeal to the residents of Flankers “to come together with the Citizen Security and Justice Progarmme (CSJP), the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) of St. James and walk with us on a journey towards a safer Flankers. This is in the hope that when we have safer communities, we will have a safer Jamaica.”
“Flankers, this is your opportunity to come out and to hear the various services that can be made available for the development and well being of your community. You will be able to see your own talents on show and help to turn around the negative view that outsiders have of the community,” he explained.
According to the Co-ordinator, the Peace Mobile is a movable, tented information fair and peace concert that seeks to mobilize communities around the issues that lead to safer communities.
“It therefore brings to the people in the communities, information on how to access the services of major agencies of the State, such as the Registrar General’s Department, Victim Support Unit, Heart Trust/NTA, just to name a few,” he noted.
Mr. Robinson explained that one of the aims of the Peace Mobile is “to unearth cultural talents in the communities by putting them on stage in a concert setting, where they are given the opportunity to use popular culture, particularly music, to express themselves, bearing in mind that the lyrics must be clean and promoting peace and positive messages.”
The concert will be staged in collaboration with radio personality Jerry D and recognized artistes, such as One Third, Tashina Mckenzie, Inga Stewart from Digicel’s Rising Stars.
The Peace Mobile was in Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay in November last year and Russia in Westmoreland in January.
“We are targeting mostly inner-city communities that have seen volatility in violence and where there is a need to bring some level of peace and harmony to those communities,” he said.
The CSJP currently targets 26 inner-city communities, 10 in St. James, one in Westmoreland and 15 in Kingston.
“The Citizen Security and Justice Programme is a social intervention programme of the Ministry of National Security and so we also use the Peace Mobile as an instrument to provide information about the type of intervention that the programme is willing to facilitate in those communities and how they can work with this programme, to bring about social, economic and political developments within their communities,” Mr. Robinson explained.