Nevis launches Community Cohesion outreach programme
By Pauline Waruguru
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| Abdul-Karim, the newly appointed Community Cohesion Director, Ministry of Social Development |
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - AN ambitious community outreach programme dubbed ‘Community Cohesion’ was launched yesterday at a press conference held at the Ministry of Trade’s conference room.
The outreach programme will be managed under the newly-established Community Cohesion Directorate in the Ministry of Social Development and its Director will be Nevisian Abdul-Karim Ahmed.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, the Minister of Social Development, the Hon. Hensley Daniel, said in 2006 when the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) assumed office, the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) decentralised the way in which communities would be reached by using a bottom/top approach.
Daniel said the approach empowers communities to own their programmes and offers opportunities where they [communities] are facilitated to solve their own problems.
The Minister also explained that empowering communities reduces their isolation from the Central Government. Daniel said the
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Hon. Hensley Daniel
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NIA’s approach to curbing crime and anti-social behaviour was a sustainable long term project as well as short-term responses.
He called on the media to partner with community leaders to empower communities by highlighting positive activities.
The media were accused of majoring in highlighting crime on front pages, but reporters present complained of challenges they face in accessing information from various structures on the island.
The new Director also addressed the gathering and said the island had recently witnessed a tragic, graphic illustration of a new reality.
“We have seen how poverty and disadvantage accelerate conflict within families and communities.
~~Adz:Left~~ We have seen how it creates recruits for anti-social behaviour and crime, and we have seen how it fuels a violent rejection of the social standards on which our society was built…standards on which all our future depends.”
He said the press conference had been called to introduce the “Community Cohesion Directorate” and noted that community cohesion would only be feasible through linkages and partnerships with existing structures including the private sector.
Ahmed called on individuals who form the communities to be involved in curbing crime by monitoring the media programmes that children watch, and commended the NIA for affording youth training opportunities that reduce their idleness.
He envisages a comprehensive community cohesion programme as one where communities themselves take charge and make internal changes so that there is a safe peaceful co-existence.
The Director called for collective action, stating, “We have each other. We must watch out for each other and each others children. When fear and desperation knock on our door, we must reach for each other; the time to stand up for what is right is upon us!”
Special Advisor, Ministry of Social Development, Halstead ‘Sooty’ Byron, who spoke during the press conference, described the newly-appointed Director as dynamic: “Abdul-Karim is an energetic talented individual.”
