Clinton Pickering – Freelance Writer
Managing Director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Omar Sweeney, is thrilled at the transformation that has taken place in the Mt Salem Zone of Special Operation (ZOSO) after two years.
“I think Mt Salem has become a tremendous place in terms of transformation,” he says.
JSIF has been charged with leading the social transformation of the ZOSO in collaboration with other government agencies. In an interview, Mr. Sweeney said at the last social intervention committee meeting just over a week ago achievements to date were reviewed and some long term plans discussed.
“We certainly have executed more than 2,000 social intervention benefits to the residents of Mt Salem, things like registration of birth certificates, civil registration documents (and) health services. Beyond the individual we have instituted public health services such as rodent control, fogging, and those kinds of events.”
On infrastructure, he said there has been drain improvement and cleaning to protect the vulnerability around flooding and waste.
Residents have also benefitted from skills training in tiling and masonry at the community centre and parenting, which, says Mr. Sweeney, “is a big aspect in improving parenting technique for children and parents alike.“ There are also homework programmes among the plethora of activities that he says have taken place.
“We are now focused on the development of the police station and the reconstruction of the school building that we are looking to commence by the end of this year,” he said.
The delivery of socials services by other agencies is a critical component of the ZOSO mandate but after two years the JSIF boss says a couple of small areas of concern remains around solid waste management. “We are still seeing tremendous pile up of garbage that requires intervention of the NSWMA so we’re working along with the community on that.”
Another focus area is the regularization of land tenure in the densely populated ZOSO community.
Mr. Sweeney says the greatest activity has been around strengthening and organization of community groups to be leaders within their own right in the community. He is therefore pleased at how well the Mt Salem community groups had coalesced to put on their own events. “Perhaps the most encouraging report is that they have been able to mobilize financing for their events through private institutions, other NGOs and international partners,” he said.
With no indication from Prime Minister Andrew Holness on how much longer the Mt Salem ZOSO will be enforced, Mr. Sweeney said “The plan now is to move from JSIF influence to community influence a hundred percent and that’s why I feel good about the progress because now 80 percent is driven by the community; what we do is provide the support, the guidance and resources as necessary.”
Describing the programme as “a great experience,” Mr. Sweeney opined, “and I think Mt Salem will always be a model.”
In terms of what happens to the community post-ZOSO and JSIF, he opined, “It’s been two years and I honestly can say that the residents of Mt Salem are owners of their beat; they’re working well with the joint forces, working well with the agencies that are there to help them and what I really want to see is that we are able to retain a presence of government within the community and that will only come if we realize that communities, not just Mt Salem, but all communities, are vulnerable across Jamaica and need to have the presence of state services.”
He said a recently completed household survey looking at issues in Mt Salem indicated that “all in all, we have persons are comfortable with their space, they want to see continued development of their area and so that’s our focus.”