MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Pastor Glen Samuels has strongly defended social intervention programmes in western Jamaica, crediting them with veering youths away from the path of crime.

“Some may question the extent to which social intervention programmes will succeed, but I stand as an unrepentant disciple in believing that every life that has been redirected is a success story — every youngster that is directed into [a] productive and wholesome path,” Samuels said.

Recently, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang was reported to have said that social intervention programmes implemented in the violence-riddled parish of St James over the years have failed to reduce major crimes.

However, speaking on Sunday at the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists’ Western Leadership Conference, Pastor Samuels hinted that a colossal mentorship programme initiated by the western conference in 2017, to steer 7,000 unattached youths away from violent paths, is still being relentlessly pursued.

“It is our conviction that church is more than fancy hats, black suits or blue suits and shine shoes…real church takes place after we have left church. It is against that background that our young people are engaged in this mentorship programme where, for example in St James, we have approximately 20 teams in terms of netball, football, where half the team is made up of Christians and the other half made up of the ones whose behaviour we are trying to change — because we believe we are salt of the earth and a light of the world,” the clergyman stated.

“Our programme towards the social re-engagement of our youngsters is one that we continue to work hard on. Last (Saturday) evening we had an all-night planning session with the youth leadership across the four parishes — St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St Elizabeth — where we have 248 congregations and 88,000 baptised members,” he continued.

Like Pastor Samuels, Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Jamaica Union of Seventh-day Adventists, argued that it is going to take the power of God and “the collective will of all stakeholders if we are going to make this place a better place”.

“The SDA (Seventh-day Adventist) Church in Jamaica is committed to nation-building. Not only are we committed to sharing the gospel, we are committed to the holistic development of people and so, as we point people to Jesus Christ, we believe that it is our God-given responsibility to help them to live and experience [a good] quality of life here on earth,” the local SDA head declared.

Meanwhile, Samuels pointed out that the church relies on the sacrificial gifts of its membership, as it does not get funding from government agencies, but is doing its best to finance the education of its members and others.

“Earlier this (Sunday) morning, in our deliberations, the report showed that apart from our moral obligations in educating our own, this conference spent nearly $5 million providing scholarships and grant assistance to youngsters, regardless of their denominational connection, assisting them in their aim for a better education,” Pastor Samuels revealed.

The church also used the occasion to recognise the works of western Jamaica journalists, including the Jamaica Observer’s Mark Cummings and Horace Hines; Janet Silvera, Mark Titus and Albert Ferguson of The Gleaner; Lloyd B Smith, Phillip Green and Clinton Pickering of the Western Mirror; and Patrick Williams of More FM.