Residents of Harbour View in St Andrew and surrounding communities were able to start the process to get well-needed documents on Saturday when the Ministry of National Security’s Crime Prevention and Community Safety Branch and the Ministry of Education and Youth staged a social service fair at Donald Quarrie High School.

Corporate entities GraceKennedy and Sagicor accepted the request to be a part of the event, which had several government agencies participating, including the Registrar General Department (RGD), Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), Human Employment and Resource Training /National Service Training Agency Trust (HEART/NSTA Trust), the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) office, and the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA).

According to Ministry of National Security Chief Technical Director, Shauna Trowers, while the fair was to promote security, it was also to show that the ministry is also interested in the welfare of the citizens, which helps to ensure they feel safe.

She said it also fits into the ministry’s Liv Gud campaign, which encourages the population to get back to the Jamaican tradition of living good with their neighbours and fosters a peaceful environment.

This was the fourth in the series of social services fairs with two already held in St James and the other at Haile Selassie High School, which is also in the Corporate Area.

“I think it was a good day. We saw quite a bit of the patron. We appreciate that it’s a Saturday so what we saw is that, at no one time there was a mass of people because people come, get what they need to do and then keep it moving,” Trowers said.

“What I think is more critical, is that we were able to connect with persons in the community, which means that even if they didn’t have the full fleet of services, or they did not have time to do the full suite of services, they would have gotten the information.

“We felt that we connected on that level and we were able to encourage persons to think widely on what security means and I do know a lot of people have come and are fascinated by the Liv Gud campaign,” she said.

Constable Steve Tyndale fits his hat onto the head of a child while another boy stands at attention at the Ministry of National Security’s social services fair for residents of Harbour View and surrounding communities on Saturday. (Photos: Llewellyn Wynter)

Sergeant Lerone Witter of the Kingston East CSSB, gets his blood pressure checked by Nurse Nicoreene Knight, Coordinator, Diabetes Association of Jamaica.