- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Dr. Henley Morgan leading a community meeting in the board room, Friday, discussing crime reduction and social and economic projects.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
HENLEY MORGAN chuckled as he recalled the day he told his staff at Caribbean Applied Technology Centre Limited (CATCL), that he planned to move office from corporate New Kingston to crime-ridden Trench Town.
They thought he had lost his mind.
"It was a major shock because it called for a major transition," Dr. Morgan told The Gleaner. "It's by the grace of God that I have retained most of them."
Almost two years after he says he got a divine call to move his business to the troubled community, there are no regrets for Dr. Morgan, a respected management consultant to major private sector companies such as Lasco, National Commercial Bank and Grace, Kennedy and Company Limited.
NOT ONE DAY OF REGRET
"There's never been one day of regret because the results have been astounding. I have never been robbed and there has been no extortion," he said.
That is not entirely accurate, as during Hurricane Ivan last September, parts of the CATCL complex were looted. The incident gained much media attention, coverage, an unfazed Dr. Morgan says, was overblown. The CATCL complex also houses the Praise City International Church which has a congregation of over 400 members. It is a merger of the Praise Tabernacle where Dr. Morgan once worshipped, and the Inner-City for Christ Ministries headed by Reverend Eron Henry. There are also sections where South St. Andrew residents help to produce bag juice and banana chips for sale in stores and schools.
Prior to 'Ivan', this enterprise employed over 40 workers. The CATCL compound is located at West Street, just a hop and skip away from the Tony Spaulding Sports Complex. Its plush interior, with spacious boardroom and suited employees, is distinctly corporate. But a step outside reveals the realities of inner-city life: youth hanging out on the 'corners' and grafitti-stained walls.
Dr. Morgan is determined to change that image and he believes the church should factor in the transformation.
"I thought the two churches in the area should come together. If we are in a community that's so divided and we're always talking about togetherness, why should the church be so fragmented that it has no impact?" he asked.
Fragmented would be an apt description for South St. Andrew during the past two years. Gangs from various communities, including Trench Town, have fought bitterly for turf ascendancy resulting in the deaths of over 20 persons last year. At the time he set up shop in the community, Dr. Morgan says the crime rate was "unbelievable".
He did not go into details about how the turmoil that caused schools to close and some residents to take flight, has impacted on his business. What he discusses are plans to uplift people with a series of empowerment programmes including weekly peace-broker meetings with residents and community leaders.
There are also sessions where constituents are counselled by trained mentors, church members or area leaders. Dr. Morgan says he will use his corporate ties to assist budding entrepreneurs.
"We want to have seminars for shopkeepers where we train them. Then we establish links with companies like Grace and Lasco to help them with bulk purchasing and set up better credit," he said.
Beverley Lopez, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, says Dr. Morgan's initiative is a step in the right direction. She notes that other companies, such as Restaurants of Jamaica and Jamaica National Building Society, have made similar moves by opening a branch in Tivoli Gardens.
"As a private sector, we need to offer amenities to the inner-city that middle-class persons take for granted. At the same time, inner-city residents have their share of responsibility to make these companies feel safe doing business in their communities."
A HISTORY WITH TRENCH TOWN
Henley Morgan's familiarity with Trench Town goes back to the 1960s when his father, Rev. C. A. Morgan, a former member of Parliament for South East St. James, was a pastor there.
Shortly after his return in the early 1990s from the United States where he lived for over 20 years, Dr. Morgan began fellowship at Praise Tabernacle. Two years ago, he says he got the call from God to help heal the community's wounds.
"I was looking at being in New Kingston and thinking that I was in a comfort zone. Then I said, 'you're only deceiving yourself'," he said.
While driving staff members to the new office site last year, Dr. Morgan says one of them was sceptical about the move.
"She said, 'Don't you see everybody is going in the opposite direction? No one comes down here'," he recalled.
These days he says, they are singing a different tune. "They're quite all right... sometimes I wonder if they are the same people," he said laughing.
... With some resistance
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
NOT EVERYONE at Caribbean Applied Technology Centre Limited (CATCL) shared Dr. Henley Morgan's enthusiasm when he told them of his plans last year to relocate the management consultant firm from New Kingston to volatile Trench Town.
Karene Johnson and Anneisha Benbow, accountants with the company, had grown used to New Kingston's corporate surroundings. At the time of their boss' revelation, Trench Town was engulfed by gang violence and moving there came as a shock to both.
I WASN'T THRILLED
"I wasn't thrilled about it (the move to Trench Town) but I'm trying to get accustomed to it," said 21-year-old Karene who has been with CATCL for almost three years.
She lives in the neighbouring East Central St. Andrew constituency and has family members who live near Trench Town. Office hours vary and because public transport is not available in Trench Town, she says she has to take a taxi most days when she leaves work to attend classes at the Institute of Management Sciences at Hope Road.
Twenty-year-old Anneisha has worked with Dr. Morgan's company for four years and has roots that run deep in Trench Town. She was not born there but remembers spending weekends with family in the community and knows the pain of losing a loved one to violence.
She is the niece of Patrick Benbow, a midfielder with the dominant Charlie Smith Comprehensive Manning Cup football team of the late 1980s, who later turned out for Arnett Gardens in the National Premier League. He was murdered by a gunman in July 1994. Initially, working in Trench Town was not something the former Holy Childhood High School student was looking forward to, but she has since taken up residence in the area.
"When we weren't here I was saying like 'hell no' but it's kind of different when you are here and see the situation and I'm not afraid anymore," she said.
