When the Government presented its pre-election manifesto, the term 'jobs, jobs, jobs' was quite popular. Residents of Spanish Town would love to see them.

"I won't say nobody wants to work," said Hyacinth Newell, who runs a clothing store in the St Jago Shopping Centre.

"If you notice, whenever there is a (constuction) site, lots of guys are there looking for work and I'm not talking about the extortionists," she said. She related that some of her customers expressed the desire to spend but didn't have the money.

Kept occupied

Lots of them want to have their own money and to be employed. Pastor Norman Lewin, who leads the Kingdom Builders Church of the Open Bible, tries to keep young men in the community occupied.

"Any little thing I can find for them to do, I give them, but they need steady jobs," Lewin lamented.

"We (the church) can deal with the social work, health fairs and feeding programmes. When you call them, they come, if it is even to put a $500 in their hands. But that can't do anything."

Not trained

According to Lewin, many of the young people are not trained, hence, any job they get, would be menial. Jobs are one thing, but the infrastructure and skills of the people to do them are quite another.

"You need to build up more factories. Most of the factories I know closed down, so there are no jobs there," said Keron Thompson, a mother of four. Newell believes that a skills training centre is vital.

"You need educators, from all fields, to get into the training centre and pass on what they know. Show them (the young) how to create things, sew, do the hair, any kind of skill," she stressed. Newell feels that this strategy will not only help Spanish Town but every parish in the island.

"When we have education, we are in for something big. We will be better off because each generation will leave a legacy so we will not suffer."

Pastor Lewin pointed to the school that the church runs, without charge to the community, as an example. He says nothing will change "unless someone can go and deal with the social problems, so people can work and change how they look at themselves."

He recommended that the army be used as a facilitator in this regard.

Something to offer

"There has to be some kind of system where they put in resources and the army can say 'we will train 50,000 young men and give them discipline also'. So when they come out, they have something to offer," said Lewin.

He said the country needed a plan and a vision for the young men and women so that they would have something to do.

"The plans I hear, they are just meeting the needs of the people, they are not teaching them how to fish," he said. He is adamant that the youth need a sense of purpose, persons to show them the right way and to protect them.

"And if we get that, watch what will happen. This country will be turned around."