COMMISSIONER of Police, Mr. Seelall Persaud and ‘A’ Division Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken last Saturday met with residents of Agricola during another successful outreach programme and listened to their grievances. They were joined by Deputy Commander of ‘A’ Division, Mr. Dion Moore and the Sub-Divisional officers on a conducted tour of the community. The top officers and other police ranks were visiting that community to celebrate the re-commissioning of the Agricola Community Centre Ground, which was a Guyana Police Force (GPF) initiative.Commander Hicken had developed a continuing interactive relationship with the residents of that community, which has greatly reduced the antagonism and distrust the community had originally harboured for the police. The feeling of unity in trust-building was palpable during the entire activity.
Seelall stressed the need for a holistic approach to crime prevention, in which social intervention was an imperative component and noted that the input of community leaders, especially religious leaders, was essential for the building and sustaining of healthy social and crime-free lifestyles of residents.
The joint initiative among the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the Heavenly Light Full Gospel Fellowship and the Masjid An-Najm Social Centre of Albouystown, which was launched as the ‘Impact Albouystown’ project which, through law enforcement and social interventions, is intended to make the neighbourhood safe, had as its predecessor a similar initiative that involved the True Vision Foundation of Albouystown, the Guyana Police Force under then Police Commissioner, Laurie Lewis, the Ministry of Works under then Minister Tony Xavier and the Ministry of Local Government, with input from the Private Sector.
Through these projects – past and present – youths from various communities have the opportunity to empower themselves through skills training, as well as exposure to positive and productive instead of criminal role models.
Wealth and job creation activities, in collaborative endeavours with the private sector, will minimise criminal forays, as well as enhance vocational skills, reduce drug dependency and consequential violence. The arts and sports will provide recreational options.
Its forerunner had initiated similar projects; but the first project was a massive clean-up campaign.
When the PPP/C Government took office in 1992, the entire country was like the legendary Augean stables, with every community clamouring for help from a Government that had inherited massive debts; an empty exchequer in a bankrupted economy; devastation in the land with the collapse of every possible infrastructure; and a hopeless and battered nation. The PNC had not only depleted the nation of resources, distributed extensive areas of State lands to itself and elitist supporters, while leaving wide swaths of the masses homeless, with no housing programme in place, but they had also depleted the various arms of the Government of basic office equipment, essentials such as desks, typewriters, fans, furniture of every kind, vehicles, all artwork from the national collection. They had also burnt records in massive bonfires that created a maelstrom of logistical problems.
But the faith in the new Government by the people to immediately right all wrongs and correct all the injustices done to the Guyanese masses by the PNC Administration was strong, and they approached their new President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, with the conviction that the Father of the Nation would not fail them. And he did not.
With scant resources available to his Government, he appealed to people of means, experience and expertise to throw their support behind his Government to rebuild Guyana, and restore the morale of the Guyanese people, with the incentive of remuneration of a dollar a year.
Among the plethora of initiatives was the Albouystown rehabilitation project, on which a Government representative worked with the True Vision Foundation to first clean up the community. Government had no money, so success of the project depended on massive input from the Private Sector.
The late Tony Amres, of Readymix Concrete, did a survey. The environmental and socio-economic depression of the community was overwhelming. The entire ‘Boulevard’ was a mountainous garbage dump. The Sussex Street canal was so silted up that animals were grazing on the vegetation growing there without sinking. The outfall had not been opened for years, because a PNC member had been allowed to build a fish-processing complex adjacent to the koker, so access by land was impossible. As a consequence, there was no outlet for water, which was lodged in the community, making that community water-logged, whatever the weather, every day of the year; with garbage, including faeces swirling in yards where children were playing.
Crime was rampant. Youths had no entertainment, no jobs, and the citizens had long ago lost pride in their community so Dr. Jagan initiated a programme whereby residents were employed by the Ministry of Works to clean up their own community and create a recreational/entertainment area on ‘The Boulevard’. Support from Government came through the Ministries of Works and Local Government. Tony Xavier’s Ministry employed the workforce and provided them with the requisite tools necessary for the massive clean-up campaign envisaged to get the community clean and healthy. A backhoe was sent from the Ministry of Local Government to clear the Sussex Street Canal. Working groups cleaned the streets and internal drains of the community, which was discovered to have the best drainage structure in the country.
Toolsie Persaud Ltd cleaned the canal, from the outfall to the La Penitence Market, and Tony Amres got help from the Vieiras to load equipment on a barge to clean the outfall from the Demerara River. For the first time in decades, the stagnant water in Albouystown (and surrounding communities like Alexander Village) was allowed to flow out of communities.
With the help of the backhoe and trucks provided by Tony Amres and Tony Xavier, ‘The Boulevard’ was cleaned of the mountains of garbage.
Tony Amres then layered dozens of truckloads of sand on ‘The Boulevard’, and for the first time in decades, the youths of Albouystown had an outlet for their energies; and families had a recreational area to picnic.
People like Bernice Mansell; Leon Davis of Food for the Poor; Lennox John of Ashmins; Eddie Boyer of National Hardware Ltd; Paul Chan-a-Sue of Ansa McAl and many others threw their entire weight behind adjunctive educational, entertainment, and care package to the needy and elderly programmes. True Vision and the late Errol ‘Taps’ Butcher organised Mashramani celebrations, concerts, and award-giving programmes, for which First Lady, Mrs. Janet Jagan was patron.
Dr. Jagan visited the community several times to have a first-hand look at the progress of the various exercises, and he instructed the Sports Ministry to provide sporting equipment to the community. The presentation ceremony was done at the YMCA building, with then Minister of Sports, Gail Teixeira, and Geoffrey Da Silva representing the Government.
Minister Teixeira had given Hamilton Green, millions of dollars to create a sports venue for the youths of the surrounding communities, but this never fructified; so, with the help of Laurie Lewis and his senior staff, streets of Albouystown were blocked, and the first street football tournaments began.
Simultaneously, the Police Force launched a programme similar to the Rosemary Lane (Tiger Bay) initiative to involve the children of Albouystown in creative/educational programmes, while offering driving lessons and other skills development training to the residents.
Members of the private sector became part of the skills development initiative and many youths from depressed areas were trained in the various professions and various areas of skills and are today gainfully employed with those very companies.
Among the police community outreaches were Christmas parties in various communities; the establishment of the ‘Grove Kaleidoscope Youth Group’, with Mrs. Indira Hicken, wife of Commander Clifton Hicken and Kim Gordon, wife of the General Manager of the Guyana Chronicle, also being skills-development leadership volunteers; similar activities of similar nature were conducted by police, through adoption of Grove, Craig and Kaneville and other communities; camping exercises that involved children in several outdoor and indoor activities, as well as classroom sessions.
So Police Commissioner Seulall Persaud is on the right track with his stated intention that the force’s strategy is to work in partnership with the joint services, governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), religious bodies, the private sector and the community leaders to ensure that the neighbourhoods are safe and programmes are implemented to target youths.