WHILE many people may make merry during the Christmas season, one non-profit is pulling out all the stops to ensure it helps the abjectly poor and homeless.

A representative of the non-profit, Association of Business Persons/Unite Jamaica People (AOB/UJP), Sheryl Muir told the Jamaica Observer that as its members pause to reflect on 2017 — which saw a doubling of efforts to impact, sow seeds and raise awareness about the problem of homelessness in Jamaica — programmes were initiated to empower and change the narrative and mindset of the less fortunate.

“Being conscious of the indignity of those who are forced to live on our streets, we reflect, too, on those who live in shelters and ‘excuses’ for a house, and even those who are finding it harder and harder to keep pace with the ever-increasing cost of living and might soon find themselves numbered among the homeless,” she said. “Having been involved and heard the realities of many of the abjectly poor and homeless, we have concluded that our approach to the issue must reside in seeking to develop opportunities for resocialisation and reintegration of the sane, able-bodied individuals who have fallen on ‘hard times’.”

Muir said the AOB/UJP has therefore designed a National Empowerment Shelter Transformation (NEST) concept paper. This programme, she explained, will assist able-bodied homeless individuals to get employment and be able to reintegrate in society. It will also provide participants with a learnt skill, opportunities for soft skills training, training in résumé writing, transportation from their shelters to place of work and back, while also taking them through a screening process.

“This will be a very strict regime on a daily basis to help with the change of mindset. You want to work, then this is what you need to do. If you’re going to get to work on time, it means you will have to get up on time… the screening is necessary to ensure we focus on those able-bodied persons who are willing to go through change,” she said.

Earlier this month, during a Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston, Muir had pointed out that increasingly, people living on the streets are asking for jobs and homes rather than food.

“We sometimes find it hard when we interview some of the homeless persons. When we interact with the homeless persons they say ‘no more food, no more food’. They don’t want any more food. They want occupation and they say they want shelter,” Muir said, adding that the AOB/UJP began tapping into unconventional areas to help them.

These efforts include hosting a medical fair, doing dental checks and creating a concept paper — NEST — to provide shelter and job opportunities for homeless people who are able to work and want to restart their lives.

She said, too, that as her organisation engages the homeless, they also reach out to stakeholders, operators of shelters, members of the business community and other partners to come together to find tangible solutions to the issues of poverty and homelessness.

Muir used the opportunity to recognise the contribution of the Open Arms Centre, Salvation Army, Marie Atkins Shelter, and the invaluable participation of the University of Technology’s College of Oral Health Sciences and volunteer nurses and administrators, who have participated in the empowerment and resocialisation process for the more than 200 homeless people that have been impacted through health and work programmes.

“This Christmas, as we close the year with a communion of bonding with members of the homeless community, we welcome on board as unity partners members of The University of the West Indies medical faculty and students who have seen the need to get involved with the empowerment process to assist with reinforcing that health translates to wealth. For the new year we will be engaging in providing services to our homeless community,” she said.

Muir also said that as her organisation seeks the support of all Jamaicans, she wishes that citizens have the gift of peace, happiness and prosperity for the coming year as advocacy for the declaration of a “Homeless people awareness week” continues.

She urged Jamaicans to hold fast to inspiration from the National Pledge and “stand up for justice, brotherhood and peace”, while working diligently and creatively to change the fortune of less fortunate Jamaicans.

— Kimberley Hibbert