Residents of St Cuthbert’s Mission were asked about whether there are jobs available to villagers in the community and what recommendations they wanted to make as regards the creation of jobs. Their responses follow:
Interviews and photos
by Roger Wong
Imelda Williams: ‘As a resident, I noticed over the years that there aren’t enough jobs available in this community, especially for students who finish writing their CXC exams. Many of them apply for the nursing course and to teach, but we only have one Health Centre here and everybody can’t work there. Everybody can’t teach at the schools here either. Also it is very expensive to rent places in Georgetown to accommodate students who want to pursue their education. Most families cannot afford that. What we need is a factory. Because we can plant pineapple on a large scale and if we get a factory to process it to make juice and other products, jobs will be created. The agriculture sector also needs boosting. Many of the villagers are willing to farm but because they are poor they cannot afford insecticide and other chemicals which many time result in their farms running bankrupt.’
Romeo Kattow, chainsaw operator: ‘To me there are no jobs available in this community. You have to be self-employed. As a result, many people go out to work in the mining sector and cutting lines for surveyors.’
Andy Clenkian, village councillor: ‘I think if many of the young people fully utilize the education system which is available to them it will aid in reducing unemployment. Parents need to encourage their children and be very keen on what they are taught in school… Every day I find out from my son what his day at school was like.’
Oneal Andrews: ‘To my knowledge, there aren’t any jobs available to persons in this community and I think if villagers expand their farming it might help to reduce unemployment.’
Kathiana Ellis: ‘I’m only living here for a couple of months but what I realize is that the people need to go into large-scale farming and that will create employment. There are a lot of people doing nothing. They can also work on producing things which will also create employment for the older people also.’
Antonius Bernard: ‘Jobs are definitely a problem here and everybody has to go looking for jobs outside of the village and in interior places.’
Agnes Simon: ‘No jobs available for you here. You got to create employment for yourself and look for jobs outside of the area… We are just surviving by the grace of God.’
Velma Usher: ‘A lot needs to be done when it comes to jobs. Things are not easy. As the song says “Amerindian life is not easy but we have to make it easy for ourselves”.’
David Fraser, headmaster: ‘I am not living here. I am just working here but basically because of limited resources, we have limited opportunities and as a result people end up seeking jobs elsewhere. What we need is some form of investment because without investment we can do nothing.’
David Phillips: ‘We don’t have jobs here and the other thing is that when the students leave schools there is nowhere for them to work.’
