The Caribbean Cement Company says it is ready to hand over 150 bags of cement to 13 displaced families in the volatile community of Rockfort in East Kingston, but wants them to show their own readiness to start rebuilding.

The homes, located in the vicinity of the cement company, were torched by arsonists during a month-long spell of violence in the area in the troubled community.

“They must be ready for the cement,” said the head of public relations at the Cement Company, Listra Sharpe. “There are storage concerns and they will get it when they provide us with plans,” Sharpe said.

Each family was presented with a $10,000 cheque by the company last week. In addition to the cement, the affected families will need to get other building materials, such as blocks, steel, sand and gravel, and Member of Parliament for East Kingston and Port Royal Phillip Paulwell cautioned the beneficiaries to use the money wisely.

“This involves people taking responsibility and I hope the money is used to buy building supplies,” Paulwell told the Observer. The affected families are all from a tenement on Glasspole Avenue which was attacked by rifle-toting gunmen late last month.

Sixteen children and three elderly persons are among those who lost all their belongings in the arson attacks. The children’s school uniforms, books and other school supplies were also destroyed by the fire.

The families are expected to get further assistance from other companies, including the Airports Authority of Jamaica, The Jamaica Private Power Company and Jamaica Flour Mills, which all operate in the constituency.

One mother of three lost everything in the attack. The woman, who gave her name as Kiesha, said since the fire she has been sleeping on a neighbour’s floor and her family has been separated.

“It rough cause we never involve inna nothing and them bun we out just true yahso a borderline. It was four woman who live inna the house and the pickney dem. I don’t know why them do this,” Kiesha said as she pointed to the burnt-out remnant of what once was her home.

Kiesha has two daughters and a son aged 11, 7 and 9 years old respectively. According to Paulwell, a counseling programme, part of which would target the children who had been traumatised as a result of the violence, was being set up to help the victims overcome their troubles.

“This is being done so that we don’t have that perpetuation of the desire for revenge,” Paulwell said.

The police have also promised to assist in making the planned social intervention initiative succeed.

“The community relations section of the Kingston East police will work closely with the private sector to assist in social intervention,” Superintendent Thompson said.

The community has been troubled by an ongoing gang feud, which resulted in the murder of nine persons and shooting and injury of eight others during the month of October. The police have also recovered three high-powered rifles, ski masks, bullet-proof vests and hundreds of rounds of .765 ammunition – the type used in an AK47 assault rifle.

Meantime, police say they are looking for Richard ‘Wormie’ Miller, whom they allege is one of the main architects of the gang war and who is wanted for a number of murders and shootings in the Rockfort area.

walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com