by Richard Nyberg

10 September 1999

Bonn, Germany: The United Nations Volunteers programme is charting new territory for community development in Brooklodge, Carrick Hill, Lady's View, New Battle and an area once known as Sherwood Forest. This isn't Robin Hood's England -- this is Jamaica. This is Hagley Gap.

More than 2,700 people live in Hagley Gap, a sprawling rural village with nine cluster communities set among steep hills. Two hundred years ago it was a coffee-growing region, but most of the plantations have been abandoned. The area is prone to flooding. The nearest phone is six miles away. The people are poor.

National UN Volunteer Linnette Wilkes has found a way to help residents of Hagley Gap, which is now known for herbs and spices and as a stop-off point for tourists along the Blue Mountain Peak Trail. The people of Hagley Gap and surrounding communities are traditionally Baptist. They enjoy woodcarving and handicrafts, singing work songs, playing traditional instruments, caring for graves of ancestors, telling stories, riddles and folk tales about legendary or historical figures. The communities have two musical groups known across the parish for their concerts and "set-ups", which are occasions when residents sit up for several days before weddings or after the death of a loved one. The "ninth night" is another important occasion. It is the final set-up when friends and family members bid the soul of the departed farewell.

Linnette explains that the slow pace of rural development and isolation of descendants of African slaves in the hills of the parish have served to preserve African traditions. "The early development and promotion of these indigenous expressions have been mainly among the people and have served as an important vehicle for participation and communication," she says.

Hagley Gap residents told her of their needs for employment, better roads, improved water supply, and adequate health care for children and the elderly. She says the greatest need, however, was for "building strong advocacy for community action and awakening the creative spirit of the people, suppressed, alienated and marginalized, locked out of any system of sustained development planning".

Linnette is one of 12 national UN Volunteers (NUNVs) recruited under a UNV Special Voluntary Fund project to work with the Skills 2000 programme, which is co-funded by the Government of Jamaica and the World Food Programme (WFP) to promote food security and to reduce poverty. The main activities include non-formal, community-based training, "earning-while-learning" strategies and helping find jobs for the poorest groups in Jamaican society. Other groups targeted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participating in the Skills 2000 programme are women and adolescent mothers, the disabled and street and working children. The work of the NUNVs follows policies defined in the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NPEP), the Skills 2000 Programme and the Parish Infrastructure Development Project (PIDP).

Residents have taken steps to reorganize themselves. They formed a local advisory committee on environmental matters and restructured a loosely-coordinated working group to ensure effective management of community development initiatives. Linnette was asked to help develop a constitution for the advisory committee. The group has developed an action plan for community improvement, ranking the activities in order of priority and already the people have participated in a work day to repair a section of the roadway. A water committee has followed up on a proposal to improve water supply to the area and basic adult literacy classes are being implemented. Areas for skills training have been identified, which will use indigenous resources.

Further committees are to address issues such as women and children, sports and education, information and communication, agriculture and land tenure, infrastructure, security, health, and tourism development.

"I feel confident that the community has benefited significantly from the activities carried out and in the foreseeable future become a model for replication at the local and national level," says Linnette. "The people are on their way to ensuring sustainable livelihoods through their own efforts and a growing sensitivity to what constitute effective community participation."

And according to Izumi Morota, Programme Specialist responsible for Jamaica at UNV headquarters who has visited the project, Linnette Wilkes is making an impact on the lives of Hagley Gap residents. "She has an eye for people and development," she says. "Linnette picks up every opportunity to pass on her knowledge and experience to support the community's own efforts. This is what volunteer work is all about."

*Based on a report from Jamaican NUNV Linnette Wilkes.