…give them the tools and they will build

LOVE of homestead, love of family and love of the soil, were factors that motivated 34-year-old Joseph Stephens to make a decision to return to his homeland Bamia, on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway after being away for several years.

Joseph has had several other good-paying jobs, he said, but his love for tilling the soil and seeing his work come to life and prosper, certainly engenders a sense of pride and satisfaction in him. He has also lived through the days of the ‘Grow More Food’ campaign and knows about bursting into the jungle and seeing his parents construct little buildings that would become their home. He knows the joys of picking and eating what he himself produced and finds that to be an amazing source of inspiration. And what’s more – he can now be with his family and his ageing mother.

Stephens admits that not much is going for the village he had left for a number of years, but thinks that there is hope. Ever since returning to Bamia, he’s planted a lot of greens and vegetables of which he felt truly proud, but was disheartened a few weeks ago when we witnessed intense sunshine and all the crops dried up. But that did not daunt his spirit and so he kept on planting, keeping his spirits high.

Stephens was among persons who feel that there is hope for Bamia and pledged their support for the work being put into the community by their Community Development Chairperson, Orleita John, who continues to do a wonderful job despite the odds.
Even though Bamia is a largely isolated village on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, there is hope that it can, in the not-too-distant future, emerge as a budding community with all the essential facilities it now lacks, and that there will be multiple job opportunities for both the young and the old.

Not being eminently proud of how much the village has achieved so far, the youth have a vision that together they can develop and maintain a proactive culture of continuous improvement and professional development, foremost for them, but not to the exclusion of their elders. The residents, who are largely of indigenous ancestry, have a culture of bonding, and so, despite the circumstances, have been able to gel solidly together; through thick and thin and in and out of season. Some of them have little ideas of projects that can be explored for the good of the community and propose sharing it with their community development chairperson.

The young people of Bamia have a dream that the time has come for them to position themselves to move on — academically, professionally, spiritually and otherwise; a dream that being left behind after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) Examination would be a thing of the past and that thereafter it will be an onward, upward climb for them. They foresee a community that’s bursting with potential in the jungle, and that essentially, the pride of their community, the Bamia Creek, will become recognised as a potential tourist attraction, with the young and the old working hand in hand.
It was Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist who said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has…”

Mead posited: “Man becomes as he behaves and he behaves as his social environment conditions him.” It is a quote that can inspire and make persons (particularly the young) become ever conscious of the people with whom they socialise, the lessons they learn from them and the impact that those people’s behaviour can make on them. They need to be ever conscious of their environment.
Some residents feel that should a health centre be constructed in Bamia, there is likely to be a good many children aspiring to become nurses, doctors, lab technicians and paramedics, ultimately contributing to the saving of lives and the development of the nation.

Thankfully, they have a primary school and a community centre, a church, electricity and a cemetery – no potable water; no telephone system; no health centre and no supermarket. But the good word is that monies have been budgeted (in the 2019 Budget) for the construction of a bigger and better primary and nursery school to meet the demands of a growing population and that a 10-acre plot acquired several years ago is being maintained.