(Jamaica Observer) Sistren Theatre Collective — a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which uses the performing arts to help improve the lives of inner-city residents — said its programmes are often seriously impacted by violence in some of these communities.
Lana Finikin, executive director of Sistren, said the group is sometimes forced to scale back significantly on the programme offerings within some of these communities once violence flares up.
“Violence does impact the work because if you plan to do 60 sessions sometimes you end up doing only 40 because of what the situation is,” she explained.
Finikin, who was addressing reporters and editors at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper’s offices in Kingston, said this sometimes forces the staff to double their efforts to make up for lost ground.
The organisation said it has however identified strategies to deal with the violent conditions to which the workers are sometimes exposed.
One such approach, according to Finikin, is to identify a ‘donett’ in some of these communities who can exercise some control on the ground. “It’s not a ‘donett’ in the bad sense, but she is someone who talks tough and is not afraid,” she explained.
She said it requires such a person who will take on the responsibility to ensure that these very beneficial programmes remain in the communities. Citing one instance when workers were trapped at a school during a heated gun battle, Finikin said it took one such ‘donett’ to get them out safe and sound.
“We were in the middle of the gun battle and she was the one who ventured out of her house and come up and chip two Jamaican choice words and let them know they can’t do this because people are here to assist, and if this continues we are not coming back,” she explained.
It was only then, she said, that the gunfire ceased long enough for her workers and the students to leave.
“It takes one person like that to take on that responsibility and put her life on the line because they could have shot her, but you have to find persons like that who are willing to take those kinds of steps to ensure that programmes like these stay inside these communities,” Finikin said.
Outside of the ‘donett’, Finikin said there are other well-thinking persons in these communities who will always warn of impending danger if the community is tense. Such persons, she said, will often alert them if it is not safe to enter the community at a particular time. But this only comes after trust has been built between these workers and members of these communities. Once this trust is built, the executive director said these community members will look out for the interest and safety of the workers.
“You will go in a community and some of the people will come and whisper in your ear to say this or that is about to happen or is happening, and so they will watch your back and ensure that you are protected,” she said.
But it is also about vigilance, as Finikin said the workers are trained to detect situations which could erupt within these communities while they are inside.
“You know the community in a way that if you go in and you don’t see the kids running around on the streets, immediately you know that something is wrong and that you are to make an about-turn and leave,” she explained.
Danielle Toppin, gender specialist at Sistren, said violence also impacts in another way as oftentimes people are either too fearful of reprisals to speak or cannot be physically present in the community to have access to the programmes. She cited the West Kingston upheaval last year May as one example of how violence severely affects programmes within some of these communities.
“The week that it happened we were having a community clean-up organised by the men in Hannah Town and they were so excited to do this,” she explained.
But despite having sourced the necessary equipment, the work wasn’t done as many of the young men fled that community during the unrest. “They were scared to come back for almost a year,” she said, adding that this is a key example of how violence affect the organisation’s ability to function in some of these areas.
The fear of reprisal, which causes persons to ‘shut down’ is another such impact.
“At the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women we had a powerful event at Edna Manley [College] which was like a healing session; no one would speak… women were sitting down in the audience and they were crying and some were whispering to each other but no one would speak publicly because of fear of reprisal,” she said.
