- CONTRIBUTED
Members of the McIntyre Villa Sunrise Youth Club pictured at Red Square corner in the community (from left): Dwight Bernard, Sophia Lowe, Sheldon Nembhard, Kevin Brown and Adrian Nembhard.
Joseph Cunningham, Gleaner Writer
ORGANISATION - community, voluntary and political - pays dividends. This is the experience of a group of bright youths from McIntyre Villa, also known as Dunkirk in east Kingston.
In 1998, a group of youths, resolute in an effort to stem violence in their community, decided to set up the McIntyre Villa Sunrise Youth Club.
This was in order to "wither the feeding-tree for gunmen" as de facto leader, Kevin Brown, explains.
UPWARD MOBILITY
Mr. Brown himself lost two brothers to gun violence and has gun pellets in his waist.
A second ambition, he explained, "was to not only to succeed in their careers, but to remain within the community as role models without blemish."
And, seven years later, he works as special assistant to Member of Parliament and Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology, Phillip Paulwell. He is also the constituency secretary.
Likewise, 21-year-old Adrian Nembhard has nine distinctions at CXC and five 'A's at A-levels, and is a certified mechanical engineer at Jamalco.
His brother Sheldon, 25, is an inspector at the Jamaica Bureau of Standards.
Sophia Lowe, 21, sits as a youth representative on the boards of Air Jamaica and Petrojam.
Dwight Bernard, also 21, is an information technology specialist at RBTT.
The objective of the youth club was to foster upward social mobility, said Sheldon Nembhard, who believes Kevin Brown is the reason that not one member of the club has ever been a victim of teenage pregnancy or gun violence.
Established in 1976, McIntyre Villa is home to over 1,200 residents, who occupy 427 houses.
TAKING REFUGE
While warring factions tussle for power, there has been consistent peace within the McIntyre Villa neighbourhood for the last six years.
Residents from violent prone Vauxhall Avenue and Newton Square communities (neighbouring) have found refuge in McIntyre Villa.
One such is Maureen Stone, from Newton Square, who lost her son, Andrea Moncrieffe, age 16. She says she appreciates Mr. Brown and the residents of McIntyre.
"I feel comfortable," she says.
While she admits that she needs her own home, she says she does not want to return to Newton Square.
Refugees from these communities reside in McIntyre Villa free of cost. "The McIntyre Benevolent Citizens Association bears the expense of light and water for these people," Brown said.
A Justice of the Peace, he was the second youngest ever to be sworn in. As head of the McIntyre Benevolent Citizens Association, he wishes to rectify a few problems. such as poor drainages and bad roads.
McIntyre is a PNP stronghold. And while the group remains upright, individually and collectively, they acknowledge that their political alignment and membership of party groups has facilitated their success.
"Political channels make it easier in inner-city areas where you often just don't have the funds for projects from private sector sources," said Ms. Lowe.
