Hartley Neita

There was once an organisation called Jamaica Welfare. It was formed by Norman Manley during the latter years of the 1930s, financed by an American who contributed one penny per bunch of bananas he exported to his country to a fund to finance the organisation.

Community-based

Jamaica Welfare was a community-based organisation. There were a few national leaders. Memory recalls D.T. Girvan, Eddie Burke and Artie Carney, as well as cultural leaders like Louise Bennett and Easton Lee. Basically, however, it was driven by voluntary leaders in communities all over the island consisting of teachers and their wives, parsons, lawyers, farmers and others.

Each village involved had groups which were involved in learning to produce and market craft. Among these were bags, baskets, hats, fans and other products made from straw which were fashionable at the time. For example, the Jamaica track and field teams to Pan American and other regional games sported straw hats as part of their uniform. They made a dash on their return by ship from these games, walking from Victoria Pier, up King Street to Ward Theatre in Kingston where they were honoured at civic receptions.

Made by Jamaica

Girls attending secondary schools also wore straw hats as part of their uniform, and these hats were made by Jamaica Welfare units in our villages.

The organisation also had trainers who taught villagers how to make preserves from guava, citrus, bananas, mangoes and other fruit, and how to bottle them. Literacy classes were also conducted in the villages; the matriarch of this programme was Marjorie Kirlew.

During World War II which lasted from 1939 to 1945, Jamaica Welfare was pivotal in enabling Jamaicans to produce things for ourselves to replace goods previously imported. Kerosene oil was in short supply and castor oil with specially made lamps were substitutes. Regulations were also made forcing our bakeries to use 10 per cent local corn meal with imported flour to bake bread.

Now with rice and wheat in short supply worldwide, and the prices for these basic food supplies beginning to rise, we are in a crisis. Minister Tufton has decided to increase the production of cassava, but cassava alone cannot full hungry belly. One, one coco will not full belly basket. It is now necessary for every backyard to have gungo peas, beans running along the fence, a few beds of callaloo, pumpkins winding along the ground and other minor crops.

Never crumbled earth

The main problem is that the current and the previous two generations have never crumbled earth between their fingers. They have never seen what they plant begin to bear fruit. They have never tasted the sweetness of the fruit and food they themselves grow. It is an attitude which has to be cultivated and massaged.

We need another Jamaica Welfare-type programme, Mr Minister. You need to revisit programmes such as Project Land Lease, even though it was a PNP programme. It is time we take off political T-shirts and don national caps.