BATTLING A NATIONAL CRISIS
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER George Overton pointed out that the role models, who, in the main, will be drawn from the business community, will speak about their own life experiences and their own beginnings. The former army man argued that there are many successful Jamaicans who grew up in similar circumstances as these at-risk boys, who have gone on to make a success of their lives. “We believe that their life stories will show the boys that if I choose the right path I, too, can succeed.
“What we want to do is to bring all of that together and hopefully, over the course of three weeks, we can divert these youngsters from the wrong path. At the end of the day, what we hope to do with this (intervention programme) is to cut off the supply line to those who become part of the criminal network. We want to divert them to the good side of the fence.”
When asked why the Guardsman Group undertook the intervention programme at this time, Overton said: “We believe that we are a nation in crisis. We are grappling with what are the solutions to the problem. A lot of the country is looking to the Government for the fix. The fix belongs to all of us.”
INTERVENTION LATER IN LIFE
Overton noted that there are a number of programmes across the country that currently target young people. However, he said he has observed that in many cases, the intervention starts way beyond the formative years, around 16 years old. Hence the reason the JDF/Guardsman Boys of Hope programme includes boys as young as eight years old.
For his part, Lieutenant Aaron Gabriel, one of the JDF soldiers who will be involved with the programme, said the involvement of the army is not necessarily a reaction to the current crime situation. He noted that the JDF is always looking to contribute to society in a meaningful way. “This is just another opportunity for us to contribute in that way, he explained, while pointing out that there are other intervention programmes with which the JDF is actively involved.