the jeffrey town story

Jeffrey Town Farmers Association Limited

The

Jeffrey Town Story A Resilient Community

By

Ivy Veronica Gordon

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The Jeffrey Town Story—A Resilient Community by Ivy Gordon

Comments

“JTFA in general and JET Fm in particular continues to be a solid example of how enhanced

communication between farmers and across countries using all potential platforms and

technology can lead to great positives in terms of new practices, innovative applications

of technologies, and improved productivity among rural farmers.” Patrick Prendergast

CARIMAC May 20, 2011

“Outstanding contributions to the Parish of St. Mary” Heroes Day Awards 2011

“..Where Jet has come in the very short period of time since it was set up is simply phe-

nomenal, I wish I could say that as the manager of Roots FM that I could say we had

done so much in such a short period of time…”Rosamond Brown August 2011 CARI-

MAC

“...It is really tremendous, JOAM is a volunteer organization and I really appreciate and un-

derstand the difficulties Mr. Gordon and the other go through to get people to partici-

pate, what you have heard listed as the achievements is really tremendous…” Raymond

Martin JOAM September 2011

“...Listening to one of the programmes now… Wow! Very impressive!! I love the signature

tune. Production quality is excellent. Good interviews, great hosting, etc. Really really

impressive!!!” Ian Pringle Media Specialist Commonwealth of Learning.

I congratulate Jeffrey Town for making it to twenty years, it is indeed an achievement .. I am

so so pleased today to look around and see that we have a group here of young people

who have been contributing…”Elizabeth Terry ICT4D Jamaica

“I wish to congratulate Jeffrey Town on all that they are doing for their own community and

for Jamaica, because if communities do not come to grips with what they can do for

themselves even with limited resources we are not going to move to where the PIOJ

(planning Institute of Jamaica) wants us to be with in the next few years…Your are help-

ing to bring about the Millennium goals in a big way for your community, a small way for

Jamaica and a smaller way for the world.” Jacqueline DaCosta Chairperson National

BEST Community Foundation and Competition September 2011

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Contents Comments

Summary

The Vision

The Early Days 1991– 2006

The Learning Curve 2006-2008

Practicing Self Reliance 2008- 2010

Adding Resilience 2010 and Forward

Awards

AGM Minutes

Additional Info

Acknowledgements


Contact Details

[email protected]

876 8233057

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Page 13– 20

Page 21– 26

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Page 41– 43

Page 44– 47

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Ivy Gordon born 1957 in the UK, a graduate of Westminster

College Hotel School, migrated to Jamaica with her husband

Wordsworth in 1994 . She teaches food and nutrition and is

head of the Home Economics Department at Guy’s Hill

High School. A member of the Farmers Association since

1995, she became assistant secretary in 1999, is one of the

three remaining original board members and has served as

the Company secretary since registration .

A note about the Author

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Summary

Jeffrey Town Farmers Association (JTFA) was established in 1991, registered as a limited

company in 2003 with a mandate for development and is still moving from strength to

strength, improving the lives and livelihoods of its members and the wider community

alike through a dedicated effort toward sustainable advancement.

Starting with water for all in 1994 and collectively seeking ways to redress the demise of

banana, a bond was formed, a spirit initiated for self reliance and resilience which has

seen progress from a member’s basement as a meeting room to a 1500sq. ft building of

their own which houses the community radio; Jet FM 88.7 a play on the registered

group name, the multimedia centre which offers internet and printing services plus the

community hot spot providing 24hour free access outside of the building, a major

achievement for rural Jamaica particularly as it is run by a volunteer group of more

than twenty people predominantly youths. In keeping with the environmental focus all

of the activities at the JTFA Building are powered by a hybrid alternative energy system

making more than 80% of the requirements.

Assistance from a variety of funding agencies has also allowed the group to plant more

than twelve acres of trees and now beautify the road sides with ten acres more. To

lead the climate change mitigation process with a series of gabion basket walls to re-

duce erosion, including two major efforts in Wallingford, plus terrace some farms.

Also clear gullies, drain ponds and raise awareness with extensive training in a myriad

of topics and award winning radio programming. To broaden the base a community

wide disaster preparedness committee has been established and trained. The women’s

group has income generating activities in simple agro processing items: a group

chicken rearing project, composting plus a functioning organic greenhouse situated on

the five acre demonstration organic plot are included in the operations as well as a

drive to community tourism with the St. Mary Breadfruit Festival product scheduled

annually since 2005.

This group is dynamic, planning and preparing for the future; it has become an institution

of service and volunteerism for the development of the rural area of St. Mary known as

Jeffrey Town and been given many awards for its efforts. It is a beacon for others to

follow, and is regarded as a model Jamaican community having built resilience into

every layer of country life.

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The Vision

In September 2010 the group took a close look at ourselves and redrafted our mission

statement.

With this in mind we laid out a set of targets to lead us to sustainability as an organization

that would include opportunities for all.

1. Our building in Top Road is to be completed so that the Multimedia activities are con-

ducted in their own space on the first floor releasing the 1100 sq foot of the ground

floor for agro-processing production of crops grow locally and the 400sq. foot of base-

ment will continue as storage. A bathroom and changing room is to be added as we

continue to expand our hybrid alternative energy system to reduce overheads.

2. We will work with all agencies to make the Breadfruit Festival a household name and

bring tourist to our community by establishing a tour route that includes our organic

farm, the radio station Jet FM 88.7, points of interest on the White River and more.

3. We will upgrade the infrastructure at the radio station so that we have a stable signal

covering the hilly terrain for all the communities between us and the North coast.

4. As funds allow we will to continue to affect mitigation works through terracing, making

gabion walls and planting trees additionally we will continue to produce educational

radio programmes targeted to specific groups of listeners .

5. It is our aim to make Jeffrey Town the best Community in Jamaica, to be the guiding

light for others to follow enabling each to lead the development process in their own

communities so that together we can build a better Jamaica.

The mission of Jeffrey Town Farmers Association is to harness all

available assistance for community development using agriculture as the

platform; to sustainably develop its human and physical resources, for

the creation of opportunities to include all the residents of Jeffrey

Town, especially the youth and women to achieve social and economic

stability.

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The Early Days 1991-2006

May 1991 a rainy Sunday afternoon, three farmers sitting on Stanley ‘Mas Roy’ Archer’s

veranda discussing the plight of farming in the community following the demise of ba-

nanas’ green gold and copra; it was the genesis of the Farmers Co-op. Stanley and his

friends Lucien and Barry led to a public relations campaign through out the districts

resulting in a vibrant group of up to seventy farmers coming out every last Sunday eve-

ning of the month to meetings to try and make things better for themselves.

They agreed to try to market their goods together, work ‘day for day’ and lobby for assis-

tance which was forthcoming from Councillor Montague who introduced the group to

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP LIFE) at that time led by Marcia

Hextall; she held a series of meetings in the community and in collaboration the water

project was formed. Member of Parliament Gillette supported the process and as

part of his commitment to Jeffrey Town the water pipes were purchased and deliv-

ered as well as the funds to start the revolving milk herd that the original beneficiaries

maintained for years; the farmers resuscitated some idle land with plantain and dasheen

but the activities were ad hoc, the assistance I’m told particularly by the younger mem-

bers of the time, wasn’t fairly allocated, but the galvanizing activity was the water pro-

ject which saw the group lay three and a half miles of four inch cast iron pipe through-

out the community using volunteer labour. LIFE in turn supplied two industrial water

pumps which were handed over to the National Water Commission, unfortunately

without written commitments for usage from them. One is tempted to say ‘shafted’

here, the community made a huge effort to help themselves with this project, day after

day on the roadside, clearing the banks and carrying pipes only to have one pump sent

to another community and then having to fight to get water in the new pipes for com-

munity use. Only half of the residents got water and even then only once a week. If it

were now a Memorandum of Understanding would have to be in place before close to

a million dollars worth of equipment was handed over, but the exercise served its pur-

pose, it gave the group a common goal to work towards and we were successful.

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The monthly meetings continued in Wilbert Archer’s basement and were led with grace

and charm by President Lucien Bennett throughout the nineties and the early 2000’s

when the group moved back to Mas Roy’s veranda. JTFA operated as a type of club in

those days, most of the families in the community having one person attending meet-

ings and even more when it came on to socials . The friendliness and welcoming nature

of Lucien made the numbers swell further. He invited Wordsworth Gordon to his first

meeting while we were still living in England and only visiting Jamaica.

The members saved together, a kind of “Partner” and some worked diligently to pay back

for the cows they received so that more could get benefit over time but there we

those who did not repay a point in case to consider when offering help to groups, how

are the checks and balances to be maintained? Is the group administration able to en-

sure probity? We experienced the same problem with the first set of water tanks, one

person had two tanks while some had none and there was dissent when the group re-

claimed one for the building unfortuneatley the token repayment for revolving stocks

was never even started.

During these years our group established itself with Rural Agricultural Development

Agency (RADA) and the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS). I fondly remember Mr. Bur-

rows, he was JAS Parish Manager then and often spent meeting evenings with us, at

that time we were congregating on Wednesdays but we have now settled on Tuesdays

as it is a day when there are less community activities, particularly grave digging which

regularly happens on a Wednesday. Mr. Burrows encouraged us to plant coconut and

chocolate, I always remember him eating a piece of rat bait, telling us it wasn’t poison-

ous, it simply caused the rodents to dehydrate. He helped us with all our farming prob-

lems and could always be relied upon for advice. RADA often came and did group

training sessions on one of the farms; they still come and interact with the members as

well as other farmers, they often speak directly to the president now who represents

all of us.

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Some of the RADA officers deserve special mention for their tangible help, Everton Parks

especially during the European Union Projects, he helped tremendously, he visited of-

ten, read our grant proposal, critiqued it and gave sterling advice. Wordsworth was

on the Eastern Jamaica Agricultural Support programme, (EJASP) committee with

Parkes (led by RADA officer Janet Lawrence) and that is how we started to collec-

tively grow scotch bonnet pepper. We followed all of the best practices, set up a

demonstration plot and had secured our market with Walkers Wood, but each time

the rain came at an unseasonable time spoiling production. On reflection these disap-

pointments were preparing the way for us to explore more climate resistant farming

and projects that offered group benefits rather than individual.

We learned early that individual benefits divided and caused animosity, we also learned

that some people were not able to carefully govern our resources and that some sim-

ply wanted to share with every one. It brings to mind the weedicide fiasco that took

place during the pepper project. Fifty five gallons of a name brand product was bought

for the farmers to prepare their land at reduced cost. A retail price was collectively

agreed on at meeting time. When the barrel was empty the funds were not enough to

go back and purchase another. Fertilizer was delivered for the same project and I dis-

tinctly remember two members never came back to a meeting after they had received

the fertilizer. It was as if they had only come to see what they could get. I was an

onlooker at this time sitting at the back of the meeting, reading a novel and listening at

the same time, simply walking out with my husband for an evening in sleepy Jeffrey

Town but the experience taught all of us to be more cautious with the scares benefits

and encouraged us to get the necessary help so that we didn’t keep making the same

mistakes. We entered in to goat rearing introducing the new Bore and Nubian brands

to improve the meat to bone ratio of the common goats, we set up a separate com-

mittee to oversee all operations and Evelyn Timberlake led the team. Two goat

houses were build one on her property and the other at Mas Roy, the community

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farmers took their female goats to either of those locations for service.

The idea was good, the intent was good but the results were less than satisfying. It took

months to get the promised goat stock. Further the goat keepers complained that the

local farmers failed to give notice of when they were coming to get service and that at

times caused annoyance. The breeding stock was supposed to be rotated but we could

not get access to that service, one of the goats was taken to be swapped and never re-

placed and the other goat became sickly and died; and with it the goat breeders associa-

tion.

UNDP LIFE had stayed in touch with the group and introduced the Canada Fund to assist in

the development of the group and community; this took the form of a series of meeting

with Paulette Griffiths-Jude the director. Griffiths-Jude came to Jeffrey Town, meet the

members and strove to know us and discover our aspirations. She submitted a proposal

to the funding agency that was supported for a consultant to facilitate the writing of a

first business plan to revitalize farming in the community. This measure helped to relieve

the disappointment of the failed Cassava project. Having embarked on significant levels

of research including a community member interning at the Office of the Prime Minis-

ter and mobilizing farmers to prepare land and secure a market the group was terribly

disappointed to have the bank renege on us after their internal loss of funds

The summer of 2002 appeared to be the turning point, the executive members of the

group, which now included me as secretary and Wordsworth as Vice President dedi-

cated a three month period to planning, writing and editing the business plan and then

the whole of 2003 trying to get support to implement the “Idle hands to Idle lands” 400

acre revitalization project which included the purchase of a tractor. We walked over

the undulating country-side that is Jeffrey Town, we discussed the land production his-

tory, ‘which crop grows best where’ and we documented the water sources. Our con-

sultant helped with the technical yields for the crops and compiled the first draft of the

document that we had to go through meticulously; we were introduced to flow charts,

implementation schedules and calculations on the net rate of return on investment.

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We went to the Ministry of Agriculture ASSP programme and spent the best part of

eighteen months being led around the garden path, more meetings, applications to

the bank, supplied more details but in the end nothing came of our efforts. We were

reliably in formed that the project was implement elsewhere.

We learned some hard lessons during this period, not least the difficulty involved in try-

ing to become a registered cooperative followed by the stress of getting everything

right for company registration. We got a set of articles from the business teacher at

school and then adapted the draft as best we could to suit us. We had to pay some-

one to type each page non of us being computer literate at that time; we checked the

draft and Mas Roy travelled with it to the company’s office repeatedly. It was re-

jected four times, finally each one of us signed on the dotted line paid the stamp duty

and we were official, but our papers languished there untouched for four years until

by fluke I came across a pamphlet talking about annual returns. We are compliant

now, but it’s a time of year I dread- preparing the papers. I’m tempted to call the reg-

istrar of company’s office pedantic, after hours of waiting to see one of their agents

to have the forms checked one of us gets called back every year because some speck

has been overlooked.

The business plan in its original format was never implemented and yet we continue to

work towards many parts it included. We scaled back our dreams and began the

journey towards community resilience encouraged and supported by our friends at

LIFE; Sheila Grant, then Executive Director believed in Jeffrey Town and her words

of wisdom inspire still. She assigned Velva Lawrence to lead the process of training

the group members, commissioned a community profile and for the needs assess-

ment a team from LIFE came and asked us what we most wanted; I remember we

talked about a school bus, a community centre and of course a tractor was still on

the list. The process was followed by a small grant to assist with irrigation tanks on

six farms and then support from Inter American Foundation (IAF) to procure

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office space and deposit on a tractor; as well as an introduction to ‘The Community

Without Borders’ project with ICT4D Jamaica in the summer of 2005 all this coincid-

ing with Wordsworth Gordon taking over as President and the launch of St. Mary

Breadfruit Festival. A small and sunny event where we almost broke even. It was his

personal drive and dedication to promote breadfruit, the resuscitation of the crop

that has made this event so special and far reaching. We had help from TPDCO for

the advertising; they spent a week in the community training the prospective stall

holders and supported our calls for development of the playing field. The orchard has

been established on site, however politics prevents further growth as land tenure is

being kept away from the community.

ICT4D accepted our application for a multimedia centre and then introduced the group

to UNESCO; Valerie Gordon brought Alton Grizzle to the community who offered

the group the radio in-a-box technology suitable for community radio with two pro-

visos: a suitable secure location and a radio license.

This period saw the overwhelming input of

voluntary labour by the members and friends

in the community to achieve the vision of

the time: a tractor and a home of our own

to include a multimedia centre and radio sta-

tion. The Burrell family donated the parcel

of land in Top Road previously given to the

Baptist Church for community, we had to go

though a series of meetings and letter writing to get the land back officially from the

church and to get planning permission from the Parish Council so with the Jamaica

National Foundation’s gift of $300,000 and with the designated portion of IAF funds

we purchased the materials to construct the basement of the JTFA Building.

Labour Day 2006

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We also ran a community block drive to raise funds and decided at that time that we

would place the pictures of all those who helped inside the building. It didn’t quite

turn out that way because there has been too many, yet the original idea to ensure a

feeling of ownership became our “Wall of Fame” that has created interest with our

visitors; it tells much of our story and is a point of pride for many of the members

Among the pictures are those taken at the health fairs we hosted supported by the Carib-

bean American Outreach; a group of medical professionals from the Tri State area of

New York. The first Health Fair was on the play field of Jeffrey Town School in 2006.

We hired tents for the occasion and the crowd was so large drivers had to turn on

their car lights for the doctors to finish seeing all of the people, the prescriptions

were filled on site, there were gift for the children, women were able to have their

pap smears done and it was all free as we got help to offset the expenses. Both times

community members told us that lives were saved; persons were diagnosed with

acute conditions and sent to hospital where further action was taken. Miss Thorny,

our local pharmacist told me that others had brought their drugs to her to have them

checked over before they took them. At the second fair Diana Cox was told how

bad her “Sugar and Pressure” were and within a year she had passed away after a

stroke. At my insistence Wordsworth saw the doctor, I had to call him again and

again, he was so busy transporting people to the health fair, arranging lunches and

doing his duties at the radio station, but he was fitted in as the last patient for the day

only to be instantly diagnosed with goiter a condition he had to deal with later.

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The Learning Curve 2006- 2008

We broke ground at a public ceremony in April 2006 and men, women and children

worked conscientiously every weekend and some evenings; to achieve the 400sq. ft

area basement. Lucien, Uncle Ben and Joker as tradesman took up residence at the

site, Joker used the last of his strength on the building and passed away before the

ground floor was built, but during that summer they were ever present, they used to

report in if they were not available for a day. Berris McFarlane and Crooks took it in

turns to work Saturday or Sunday so that a skilled man was there to lead the volun-

teers. On reflection it was a fun time, we cooked and ate together and worked until

we were weary, dug ourselves out of a landslide, dug a foundation that was deeper

than we could see over and bailed water from everywhere. We had robust discussions

about the doors and windows, aesthetics over security, but common sense prevailed

and safety of our prospective assets was the order of the day.

Our efforts were noticed and we were nominated for the Michael Manley Award for

Community Self Reliance 2006. When the team of judges came to assess in July we

were laying the floor. Louis Marriot, Executive Director of the Michael Manley Founda-

tion was captivated by the community spirit and the work of a six year old boy Marco,

helping to fill the wheel barrow with stone along side an old man. The moment was

again commented on at the 2011 ceremony when a video was shown and this rhythmic

work action was repeated; Marco, Uncle Ben, shovel for shovel.

From the moment of the nomination many of our members were confident we would

win, I guess I was the most fainthearted and I remember being stunned when Jeffrey

Town was called, Joan Small was first to react and her delight was clear for all to see

on the front page newspaper picture and prime time news. All the talk was about the

radio to come and the breadfruit festival: we were working hard, clearing and fencing

the ground, building the stage, planting light posts and running wires, digging drainage

trenches setting up water points and building bamboo booths. The advertising cam-

paign and our continued media presence heightened expectations, but God had other

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plans a trough hovered over Jamaica and our festival was almost washed away. We had

set up, got everything in place and then down came the rain for about an hour making

the place wet underfoot , however the main areas of bad weather were elsewhere shak-

ing the resolve of the travelling public. The community came out in their numbers and

enjoyed the features of the festival and the rising stars of the previous year, Chris Mar-

tin and Noddy who closed the evening show. We licked our financial wounds and went

back to building our radio station and by Christmas we were able to hold our annual

social on the roof of the basement in 2006, our first party on our own turf!

A chance meeting with the Minister of Commerce Paulwell hastened the arrival of three of

the five promised grant computers for the Multimedia Centre. Fortunately using a net-

work of friends we received two reconditioned computers from the Cable and Wire-

less Foundation, one from the Development Bank and another from the Canadian High

Commission. They were all installed on our hand made reclaimed ply board tables that

we use still today and we were able to officially open with pomp and ceremony in a

flurry of red and white on February 14 2007. A cell phone dial up modem was the only

connection to the internet then as our community was overlooked when land line tele-

phones were the order of the day.

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Valerie Gordon address the opening ceremony February 2007

Albert Little III was our Peace Corps volunteer during this period; he gave us all hands

on ICT training and quietly gave service at the centre with a vast array of commu-

nity volunteers working on a rota system. He guided us to the publishing of our

first Jeffrey Town Bulletin in March 2007; a monthly news letter for our members

and friends. Through Peace Corps Jamaica we were able to get assistance from

other volunteers particularly Tanoi Tanwii; together they made using a computer

come alive for many of the young people in the community and some of the not so

young too. Marvin Jarmam was also critical to the training process which took place

both in Jeffrey Town and at the Container Project in Clarendon.

I remember Albert said to all of us on the occasion of his leaving that he had never be-

lieved we would achieve a multimedia centre, a radio and 1500sq ft of building;

when he came the construction was little more than a shell and he had to use his

skills at the local high school as there wasn’t a computer in sight. The summer of

2008 when his service ended the ‘Jet’ had started to fly we had commenced our

first Environmental Foundation project and held two more successful festivals.

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From left to Right: Ivy Gordon, Lucien Bennett Michael Barnaby, Herbert Simms, Hilda

Townsend, Stanley Archer, Wordsworth Gordon and Barry Bennett

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New leadership and the influx of new members had strengthened the resolve of the asso-

ciation and the programmes of service to the community had been set in three clear

directions:

• Farming as the core with the dream of agro processing,

• Environmental protection including climate change mitigation

• Multimedia.

Valerie Gordon, Track Chair for Community Development ICT4D gave sturdy support to

me while I tried all avenues to procure the desired radio license. We had to present to

the Broadcasting Commission, complete dozens of forms, visit with spectrum and of

course pay our licensing fee. Fortunately friends were at hand and LIFE Ltd paid for us

but since then by hook or by crook we have managed to raise our own funds and re-

tained our independence. The community spectrum license was finally granted in

March 2007 ironically a whole year before the radio itself arrived in Jeffrey Town. We

used this time to find a name for the radio that would capture the spirit and intent of

the group, ‘JeT FM’ followed by the hertz frequency 88.7 allowed us to create a type of

acronym from our own name Jeffrey Town Farmers carefully cementing one entity to

the other.

Albert Little Peace Corps Jamaica serving the community

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We were in dialogue with the ‘Lift Up Jamaica’ programme, concerning our application to

have the building completed to establish the agro processing space as well as the multi-

media centre. The proposal was approved at every level, work had started on other

projects in the parish and we were to be next. Can you imagine our hope and expecta-

tion? The tradesmen would be certified while completing the construction and paid a

stipend, the building itself would be completed to the first floor and we wouldn’t have

to raise the funds ourselves; however the general elections and everything stopped, the

programme was abandoned and we were left high and dry.

We made best of our situation and built two smaller rooms within the basement for the

radio and production rooms and for a while we thought that fate was against us, that

the radio would never come. We were told there were problems in Malaysia where

the radio was being built, UNESCO couldn’t get an import license, it was on the wharf,

all sorts of things, but fate wasn’t against us. By chance at a parish meeting with the

permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture we heard about the Banana Support

Programme and the huge short term grants they were offering. I was on long leave

from school and was able to devote the month of November to writing the grant pro-

posal document after emergency meetings with the executive members and farmers.

Wordsworth and I kept late hours, me writing and using him for the technical farming

input and proof reader so that we could meet our weekly deadlines with Everton

Parks. We submitted our sealed bid to the European Union (EU) one day before the

December 1 deadline and by Christmas were told we had been selected. The contact

was signed in late January2007. It was a frantic period during which we set aside our

activities with the Environmental Foundation and GEF Small Grants projects for three

months as we were in the middle of the five month multi-million project to EU

“Strengthen the Development Capacity of JTFA”. We were building the 1100sq ft of

ground floor of the JTFA Building, a slaughter house for our chicken farmers, restoring

the individual farmer’s chicken coops, training youth and primary

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school children in the use of computers and training ourselves with Council of Volun-

tary Social Services (CVSS) to better manage the association. Our training was taking

place in subtle ways too, I had been invited to serve on the board of LIFE by Sheila

Grant, I felt out of my depth in the beginning but I realize now that it was her way of

strengthening JTFA’ s executive board by allowing me to see first hand how a develop-

ment company works and to network with significant players in the field, I served faith-

fully for seven years as secretary and have since been invited to serve on the board of

ICT4D Jamaica as the community development track chair- ‘full circle’; Valerie helped

us and now I hope to help others.

Naturally we were working on our farms as we were preparing to launch the radio. I had

gone to The Towers in Kingston with Mas Roy and Vice President Sharon Fyffe to col-

lect the precious merchandise and brought it home to Jeffrey Town in late February

2008. There was great hype and excitement about creating logos and slogan, testing to

see the ones most catching. We ultimately selected ‘The Voice from the Hills of St.

Mary’. The boys accompanied Wordsworth most evenings driving all over St. Mary and

St. Ann to see where the radio signal carried to, and then selected the best locations

to put up our Jet Fm 88.7 signs. We had to choose our shirt colours and have the lo-

gos embroidered on and then there was the drama of not enough shirts, who to get

and who not to. In the end every member got a shirt and the second time around only

the multimedia staff got shirts, the demand still outstrips the supply. As usual we were

our own project mangers, Wordsworth out in the field leading in all of the practical

matters, building, farming and the environment issues and Sharon and I in the office,

balancing the books in this case separating GCT and putting every item of spending in

its correct activity line as well as documenting our input too. If that wasn’t enough we

were working with the telephone providers to get broadband internet into the build-

ing, it required a special point to point panel to beam in the signal, we placed it on the

JPS light post that we had asked for, but first it had to be moved; more drama, ropes,

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men and lots of noise and later we all reveled in internet at sensible speeds while

cringing at the cost. Thank goodness the Universal Access Fund sees fit to support this

service. At the end of the project we actually benefited to the cash value of $5million,

obviously we are grateful to the funding agency, but none of the results would have

been possible if Lorne Hay at the hardware store hadn’t extended the group a half mil-

lion dollar line of credit and on top of that followed it up and been our most faithful

radio sponsor. The refrigerated truck to transport the group’s chicken, originally

planned for turkey, was never ordered because our loan application forwarded to the

Development Bank of Jamaica didn’t come through. Prior to writing this project the

group had formally applied to the PC Bank for the funds to buy a tractor. It was in-

cluded in the plan because we were told verbally three times between June and De-

cember that all was well and so we included it as a major part of our contribution as

counter funding, but DBJ took the whole five months of project to reject or at least

change the terms. They called it a fancy

name but the essence was our 1million de-

posit lodged at the bank was to be kept as

security for the 2.5 million loan making it

untenable to the farmers and factually mak-

ing it impossible to buy more that the main

body of the tractor.

So as we celebrated our great achievements

over the short period and launched our ra-

dio on another rainy day, May 19 with a

marching band, and live outside broadcast by

Roots FM we again swallowed our frustra-

tion at being thwarted in the pursuit of a tractor. Shortly after this we had to request a

change of purpose for the funds reserved for the tractor deposit, and we invested in

our test lab.

The Official Launch Day May 2008

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We set aside a 70 sq ft area to one corner of the ground floor, constructed a partition of

wood and mesh, lined it with metal sheeting, gloss painted the concrete wall and then

bought the best industrial stainless steel appliances we could: a deep fat fryer, a six

burner cooker, sink, trolley, tables and utensils. It has proved to be a good investment.

The women’s group is able to produce ‘Stagga back’ as an income generating activity, it

has also given us a place to produce and test our agro-processing ideas and it serves as

a prep area for festivals and shows and a ‘kitchen’ when internal workshops and func-

tions are taking place. We did well during that period and we felt pleased, but it was

just as well we had been judicious, the monitoring systems for the EU projects were as

efficient as our current contractor general is now, every receipt had to be produced,

for their money and for ours and we had to provide receipts for the co funders contri-

butions too. They wanted to see the receipt for the radio and the EFJ vehicle. A lead

project accountant came from Ethiopia to check the reports of the local accountants

and then went through my copy of the accounts with me to make sure she understood

all we had done. It was exhaustive, Valerie, now working for EU, came from America,

people form the Ministry and RADA came in their numbers and of course the Europe-

ans too. Most comments centered around amazement that so much could be done

with the funds or that there was so much to see for the investment. We were able to

use our building society account for the project but other agencies have insisted on

commercial bank accounts, such accounts can be onerous for small groups, the fees

are heavy and the process of opening an account is almost prohibitive. Fortunately we

had a long term account with Scotia in which we had kept minimal funds and were able

to revive it as required and use it as leverage to open another in time for 2011 GEF

project.

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JTFA would never be the same again! People told us that but we didn’t understand; the

rate of development increased with the advent of the radio. The work required in-

creased and of course so did the benefits. We had some personnel challenges chiefly in

the form of discipline as both hardware and software were disappearing and some of

the equipment was being mistreated. It was difficult. The senior members were at a

disadvantage not understanding the technology so well. The extended hours of service

meant we were stretched in numbers to be able to supervise a youth cadre of twenty

five, manage their exuberance and try to facilitate their ambitions, it wasn’t possible.

Over the years we have had to trim the numbers, keeping the steadier and more reli-

able ones plus compile a set of standard operating procedures to guide the volunteers

as they give service and enjoy the facilities. We have had to instill a piece of ourselves

in the younger ones, help them to understand that the infrastructure is for them and

help them understand the value of ownership. It is less challenging now but still re-

quires vigilance at times. Michael Barnaby and Horace Walters are prime examples of

two young men who have allowed membership of the farmers association since 2006

through the media initiative to help improve their lives, Michael through formal media

training and giving service at the weekend and Horace by using in-house training to add

to his own skills; Kevin Sturgeon has gone onto main stream media, Joni Weekley is at

tertiary studying media and Tanya Chin at the North Coast Times each of them has

shown their pride in Jeffrey Town by writing and speaking of the things they witnessed

here. Orane came in with the youth drive and gave service at the radio, but his agricul-

ture base has allowed him to use his talents across the broad spectrum of JTFA activi-

ties as youth leader until he became too old for the title.

ICT4D Jamaica brought on board CARIMAC as the trainers in the persons of Rosamond

Brown and Patrick Prendergast and Commonwealth of Learning as the funding agency

to teach us how to make the best use of our community radio. For Rosamond this was

a return to Jeffrey Town as she had led the pre radio training in 2007 and allowed

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internship for members of the team at Roots FM, some of them return to Jeffrey Town

as she had led the pre radio training in 2007 and allowed internship for members of the

team at Roots FM, some of them were even paid stipends while they were learning. The

major workshop in July 2008 was with thirty participants mainly youth; we used our

internet connection to link with other community radios in the States and to carry parts

of the activities online. Valerie Gordon was the raconteur for the event and our pro-

gress and activities were entered onto a ‘wiki’ Community Media/NGOs/JFTA - WikiEducator re-

cording the collaborative approach used for programme making. We created our flag

ship magazine programme Jet Vybz to complement the already popular First Flight. This

is the morning gospel showcase featuring ‘Calling out to Farmers’, and ‘Living in Health’.

We had the by product of creating a community media star of Ronald Derrett the name

of “Biggaroo” and his style of presenting the show created a storm!

I was invited in November to St Vincent to a workshop for Caribbean Community radio

operators and there I learned who our counterparts were, where we could go for help

and most importantly for me the real function of our own media house. I met Kevin

Wallen of the SET Foundation there and was able to persuade him to come to Jeffrey

Town and run his team building exercise with our group primarily to help us get to the

bottom of stubborn behaviour issues. He came in December and led us through six gru-

eling days of his regime; fourteen of us participated, Wordsworth and myself included

and since then only three of the group has left, two migrating and the third unable to

meet the standards required was asked to leave. Our policy has always been to invite,

to include and ask a person to conform, it has served us well and had we been on a

stronger financial footing and been able to pay key volunteers stipends our turn over

rate would have been much less. Its just a reality a person has to put earning a living as

priority.

We entered 2009 stronger, on a solid footing learning all the time, we had completed our

first four gabion wall interventions, learning on the job, each one more extensive than

the previous one; we were composting, plus adding pineapple contours on the

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hillside as viable economic crops to prevent land degradation and had applied to Ja-

maica Organic Agriculture Movement to begin the process of becoming organic farm-

ers. This year saw the leasing of the five acre plot for organic farming and the original

construction of the greenhouse took place. Wordsworth was determined to use or-

ganic principles in the 3000 sq ft greenhouse and so the experimenting began and the

composting operations already in existence came into their own. Our twelve acres of

tree planting was completed with mixed results, we found that those planted on the

school grounds were not given enough care and that even some of our farmers hadn’t

given their own trees enough love for them to thrive so the difficulty in getting planting

material for our breadfruit orchards was perhaps a blessing. The trees for our road-

side planting exercise were also promised, the holes were dug for the first hundred but

the trees never delivered. This time around as we embark on our ‘Avenue of Pride’ we

have included maintenance in our planning and the famers who are planting the remain-

ing 17 acres of trees are established seasoned farmers.

We were adapting to challenges, offering literacy and numeracy support to community

members using the computer and a special on line learning programme supported by

the Nation Training Agency HEART; twenty nine people were certified at grade nine

Some of the HEART graduates from Jeffrey Town December 2009

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proficiency level at the end of the programme opening new doors to each of them.

We continued writing project proposals to get solar energy for the building as our light

bills were crippling we were using all of our funds to prevent a disruption of service,

our community had become accustomed to listening to Jet FM and were even com-

plaining that it was only on air until 10pm daily, more and more of the residents were

coming to use the multimedia centre and the school children often came in droves to

do homework assignments.

Two of our stalwart members were seriously ill during this year and the rest of us rallied

around as best we could, Ronal Johns is still Vice President even though he has lost a

leg and Clover Whyte after a stroke has resumed her cooking duties for the group at

all our functions. Unfortunately George Burrell - ‘Uncle Ben’ passed away in 2010 and

we came together as a community to raise funds for his funeral, he had been at the in-

firmary for an extended period and family contact details were not with him, it was

simply luck that we were able to contact his family and pay respect to such a kind man

who had helped everyone at sometime or another. Unannounced he brought me a nut-

meg tree during my first year in Jamaica, and Wordsworth always spoke of how kind

he was to him and the other children when he was a boy.

Past president Lucien has moved out of the district and his brother Barry the oldest of the

three octogenarian rarely comes to meetings. It is fitting that we were able to honour

these two and Stanley Archer at the radio launch in 2008 as founding and still serving

members of the association.

The farmers association had established a good reputation and the Commonwealth of

Learning was happy to begin a direct relationship with us to continue training our team

in media, particularly a model that facilitated community learning. It was a continuation

of the work started in St. Vincent where I had to outline my thoughts on a series about

the environment; we created our award winning series on Climate Change under the

dedicated care of Patrick Prendergast who was supported for two days that year by

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Dr. Maria Protz a member of CARIMAC dealing specifically with communication for

development. We were able to use practical examples of best practices from activities

completed in our communities and our friends in the development field including Maria

and Franklin McDonald subjected themselves to interview to give the series authentic-

ity. The workshops are mini projects in themselves: contracts have to be drawn,

budgets agreed and kept and a list of

deliverables achieved by specific dates.

Wordsworth and Seymour Sexton the

radio manager always participated in the

workshops but the administration and

report writing was left to me. The se-

ries culminated early in 2010 with the installation of the hybrid alternative energy sys-

tem at the building and this allowed us to emphasis the process, the benefits and the

technology to our community.

Shortly after our second year of success with the National BEST Community Competition

for work done in 2008 and perhaps our best Breadfruit Festival so far, Stanly Archer

launched his book in late 2009 in England – ‘Life According to Maas Roy’. It tells his life

story and gives his portrayal of much of what had happened in and around the farmers

association, in fact www.ourpeaceofhistory.com continues to post monthly updates on

all JTFA activities and Mas Roy himself still keeps abreast of things and offers assistance

where he’s able. On his last extended visit to England he took copies of our Bulletin

and had them reprinted for distribution at book fares and publicity events. Prior to

meeting Vilma Gregory at a UNESCO conference we weren’t able to send out the

magazine electronically which was frustrating for all of our friends and family abroad. Its

ironic, Mas Roy doesn’t use any of the media equipment at the centre and yet he was

the one to lobby most for the service which commenced in March 2010.

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There were some changes to the legal requirements for running a basic school and our

school was in danger of not getting certified so the farmers adopted the Jeffrey Town

Basic School and assisted in the upgrades necessary for the registration: fencing, roof

repairs, kitchen and bathroom upgrades, while the brand new basic school originally

designated for Jeffrey Town was constructed in Maidenhall, on the grounds of the

Seven Day Baptist Church that was able to offer clear land title. Here the citizens as-

sociation ‘WalDeTop’ took charge of the work, a separate group formed from within

the farmers association and later led by two more of our executive members at the

time Joan Small and Lincoln Small. The official opening took place in May 2010.

Our friends from ICT4D brought Bob Harris from Jamaica Public Broadcasting Service to

the district and he made two thirty minute Point and Issues programmes about Jeffrey

Town, one; dealing with agriculture and the challenges Wordsworth, Lincoln Small and

Hilda Townsend featured here. The second featured Seymour in the ICT edition with

me as the executive member with responsibility for media; it asked the question how

does ICT affect development. I have pondered that point often and can say that access

to ICT can be life changing; I’ve seen the difference in myself and some of our young

members and distinctly remember the written comment made by one of them at our

self assessment in 2010 “…if it wasn’t for Jet FM perhaps I would be on the street cor-

ner kneading my hand middle...”

Enjoying breadfruit goodies 2008

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We had celebrated in February to mark the third birthday of the multimedia centre and

the completion of our contract with the government to provide specified hours of ser-

vices six days a week in exchange for equipment given, releasing us form the monthly

usage reports for the three computers, the remaining two never materializing fortu-

nately we were able to explore other avenues to update and replace computers;

UNESCO giving two and line items included in our project documents helped with sus-

tainability; we always try to include something for the multimedia centre in all that we

do, it is not self sustaining but it is an established and essential service.

We were able to fulfill our commitments with the BEST Community prize money, we pur-

chased the bathroom items for the Primary School, and learning aids for both Primary

and Basic schools, we tiled our multimedia lab, installed an energy efficient air condi-

tioning unit and with the help of the Universal Access Fund fired up the community

internet ‘Hot Spot ’giving free access to those outside the building within a certain

range.

The group had taken charge of the dilapidated Maternity Clinic

from way back, it had been severely damaged by hurricane

Gilbert in September 1988; they had effected rudimentary

repairs and maintained the grounds for the duration until

the Digicel Foundation, JSIF and the CHASE Fund came

together with the community and built the replacement:

ground breaking was in 2009; Paul Brown and Stanley

Archer were the designated executive members to lead

this process. The grand opening ceremony was on all fools

day April 1 2010; at first we thought it was a joke, but it

wasn’t, a host of dignitaries from town came, the press, Nurse Enid Gordon

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the health authority and the political representatives especially those we wanted to lay

claim to the ground work, but fortunately the official press release from Digicel con-

firmed the efforts of JTFA. The high point of the ceremony was when one of the rooms

was named after Nurse Enid Gordon, the midwife from the district whose life time of

dedicated service allowed the clinic to stay open and at that time, even in retirement

she was still giving service to the community by visiting the sick participating in the ra-

dio production workshops for JTFA as a resource person and recording a feature of the

‘Me and Mi Baby’ radio series called “Ask Nurse”.

This thirteen part series about maternal health was made in collaboration with CARIMAC,

the Commonwealth of Learning and JTFA. Patrick was again leading the way, we had an

intern to help our volunteers build this series but in 2011 they were able to do the job

themselves with excellent results, the programmes have been loaded on ‘Spreaker’ to

offer greater access and our level of internet service allows us to stream live every thing

on Jet FM now operating with the added tag ‘Powered by the Sun’ as sixty percent of

our energy came from renewable sources, but the GEF funded upgrades of 2012 have

increased the percentage to approaching eighty-five.

The wind turbine announced itself during Tropical Storm Nicole, there were no storm

warnings, it was just a depression passing but we had extremely high winds in the area

which led to the turbine furling itself out of the breeze; it made loud crunching and

whistling noises that had residents coming out in the rain to see what was happening.

The JTFA Building was the only place with current for the whole of the following week

and the resource became invaluable at that time for phone charging and news sharing.

The radio antenna had been stuck by lightening and the transmitter was damaged, our

team of volunteers climbed the light post, took down the antenna and fiddled and fixed

and fixed some more until we repaired it. We were there until all hours of the night,

many enquired about the radio others offered to help and did with the outside parts,

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and the ups and downs the light post, the on and the off of the roof were just as dra-

matic as the day the wind turbine was installed. Ropes everywhere, pulleys and wires,

orders flying from all directions, some near misses and then victory, the land mark was

hoisted and secured. It has become a point of interest to many passing through the

community and an invaluable source of energy especially during the cooler months of

the year.

The tradition of working together and playing to-

gether continued as we had the Christmas treat

for the local children and outreach for the indi-

gent in December followed by a party for our-

selves on New Year’s Day. Labour Day is another

of our traditions; for as long as I have been a

member of the group JTFA has always had pro-

jects, some big and some small. In 2010 it was the concrete pathway to the multimedia

door and our garden, in 2006 it was the building itself and 2007 the breadfruit Orchard

at Salisbury, that project taught us a lesson, “Never bite off more than you can chew.”

Every one of our members belongs to another community group and on Labour Day

each club or church wants to clean up some where or build something and so in reality

early numbers are often low. That day at the orchard we roasted alive and despite the

best will in the world we had to leave the last seven trees until another day. We

planted more fruit trees in 2009 in different locations and painted the grills at the build-

ing, 2008 we were moving into the ground floor of the building from the basement

and in 2012 we completed the work on first half of our Avenue of Pride, expected to

be one thousand trees from Maidenhall to Salisbury; we resupplied the damaged Pride

of Barbados plants, completed the individual fencing and did more clean up on the

road.

Hilda and Clover Boxing Day Outreach 2010

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This is a personal dream I have had for Jeffrey Town for years to plant trees along both

sides of the roadside throughout the district and we

were fortunate enough to get funding from the Pro-

tected Area Trust for reforestation and they agreed to

the roadside trees, the community has bought into the

idea and given plenty of help, the activity created a real

buzz and the place looks so much better already.

The youth club was in full cry in 2010 preparing entries

for the JCDC Parish performing arts competition and

two of the members we given medals, - Olivia Derrett

and Havagaye Walters. In fact this was to be their year,

as Havagaye was pictured on the front page of the Daily

Gleaner for her anti-traffikking dub when she per-

formed at the Terra Nova closing ceremony of the Anti

Trafficking of Persons III project. The dub had been

playing on Jet FM for months as our part of the project

and Olivia was persuaded to enter the St. Mary Farm Queen competition. Words-

worth spent a fair amount of time talking and encouraging her, Horace helped with the

‘Dub’ and she was rewarded with first prize and a place in the national contest. The

association hired a coaster bus and went en mass to Denbigh to support her and again

she was victorious as National Farm Queen, and everyone was delighted. As part of

the appreciation of Olivia, Patrick hosted an extended interview with her for the radio

and this was the beginning a special feature for the station.

I have always been reluctant to host a radio show but I was encouraged to produce the

series of similar interviews including interviewees personal music selections called

“Conversations with Jet Icons”;

Pride of Barbados planted April 2012

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people who have given service to the community. I reflect with pleasure at the achieve-

ment, it taught me so much and I felt privileged to listen to the exploits of those who

have paved the way; Miss Thelma, Jeffrey Town’s song bird singing for posterity during

her interview, Bishie Walker telling us we are “Climbing smoke if we try to go forward

as a nation without agriculture” both of our community midwives telling of how many

miles they walked over hill and valley to assist in deliveries and that during their time

government paid for the training. It has provided an oral history of life and times gone

by; Dudley McFalane told us how he got the name ‘Chip’ about the Baptist Church in

Gayle and the history of the PC Bank, the series allowed us all to hear the life stories

while the person still lives. Wordsworth and I included ourselves individually to discuss

our work and leadership with the association and to give an insight in to our lives in

England which prepared us to give service here and the members themselves have also

had opportunities through this series to publically express their views.

The making of an episode of Conversations with Thelma Nelson, Jeffrey Town’s ‘song bird’ and

interviewer Patrick Prendergast.

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A week after Denbigh we arranged a community tour motorcade to show Olivia off to

the residents. She performed her talent piece for the community at the PANOS Day

Climate Change concert along with the stars who give there time freely to the project.

The team at Panos said our community crowd was the largest, our community the

most knowledgeable at the pre concert discussion and its true the artists said the same

thing. They were amazed that we could sing the climate change songs; they didn’t know

that we had been educating and increasing awareness by exposing the community to

best practices and their songs on the radio. Neither did they know that Jeffrey Town

was awarded The Best Environmental Community in Jamaica in June by the Jamaica En-

vironment Trust, (JET) along with Most Sustainable Agriculture and Best Environment

youth leader in Orane Brown. JTFA was leading the development process in Jeffrey

Town and it could be felt in the level of pride among the residents as they spoke of the

recognition, the radio station and the high profile visitors. They looked forward to the

annual festival and many plainly said they were “Waiting to see what Mas Jue a get up

to next!” referring to Wordsworth whose strength and vision was and still is the driv-

ing force within garnering exceptional results.

Once again Jeffrey Town was recognized with the JET ‘Best Environmental Community

Award 2012’

The PANOS team with us in Jeffrey Town August 2010

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We used the annual self assessment to guide the way, 2010 the radio production team

joined the executive and Patrick was kind enough to act as facilitator for the day. We

made an early start and had breakfast and lunch as we revamped the vision statement

and listened to the voice of our members commenting about the leadership, the asso-

ciation itself and where they saw the future of the organization. The drive for commu-

nity tourism came to the fore and took shape for it to be an extension to the annual

festival; we felt there was plenty to see, much of it by our own hands, the gabion walls,

the multimedia centre and radio, the organic farm, and the landmarks not yet high-

lighted or properly documented. Reconvening later in the month we talked specifically

about the radio, the programme making schedule, the new shape of Sundays, the Christ-

mas programmes and how best to make use of the college graduate serving as intern.

None of us was able to foresee the work and the glory to come between then and Sep-

tember 2011,

We had successfully completed all funded project and were operating entirely on our own

resources when we hosted the staff of the Environmental Foundation for their annual

outing, we were proud to show them how their support had benefitted the community

and display how we had integrated the work with grants from other agencies and of

course highlight how much more there was still to do. Funds were tight but we still put

on the children’s treat, the indigent out-reach and our Christmas party held as usual on

January 1 when most are free from family and church ties to come together as farmers.

2011 started with the new radio schedule and rave reviews about Sundays plus a new

line up of hosts for Jet Vybz and not much else until late in the month I received an

email from Valerie Gordon asking why we hadn’t entered JTFA into Caribbean Telecen-

tres competition. To be honest it wasn’t because I didn’t want to enter Jeffrey Town, it

was the online application I was afraid of, but it so happened Orane and Horace were

around to help me and the organizers: Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA)

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and the Taiguey Foundation called on Skype to confirm all the parts of the entry and

allowed us to edit into portions the radio programmes and send them by email as the

files were too big to upload. So the year of competitions and exposure had started.

Wordsworth, Lincoln and Horace spent three days in Kingston representing at Green

Expo in the EFJ booth, they interviewed every one of the community group leaders

there as well as LIFE’s executive director Velva Lawrence and we used the information

to make a series about the Expo for the radio. We did the same at the UWI- SALISES

conference: Globalization, Climate Change and Rural Resilience in May 2012 where

Wordsworth presented the paper ‘A Pathway to Resilience’ and captured the speeches

of the other main presenters as content for the latest Environment Awareness series

produced by the Jet FM team.

Mike and Mary McLaughlin the directors of the Trees That Feed Foundation were in Ja-

maica in February too, and they hosted a workshop about Breadfruit, in particular the

Ma’afala variety that they intend to introduce to the region and as Jamaicans they chose

home first. JTFA was invited through RADA because of the Breadfruit Festival event

that is part of our remit. There was an immediate connection, nowadays they call it

‘synergy’ and we committed to working with TTFF in all ways that we could and they

with us. Wordsworth and I dashed off to the States to support the fund raising drive at

the Chicago Flower and Garden Show in March, that year and again in 2012 to talk

about breadfruit and the impact this initiative could have on local food security. The alli-

ance with Mike and Mary has developed in to a fast friendship and their help has been

invaluable especially in the area of the festival and we have included each other in our

grant proposals as we share some common goals, breadfruit flour being ‘key’ among

them.

Wordsworth was lobbying the Food and Agriculture Organization country team through

the food security project for a new covering for the greenhouse as the anti viral mesh

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had become covered in mildew and it was too hot for the crops, Dr. Thomas and his

colleagues were our guests at the Valentine’s Day get together to celebrate the forth

year of multimedia service to the community and declared after the tour that he would

be willing to consider proposals from the group, especially those outlined for the young

people’s group who want to farm collectively he commended us on the work so far.

Later in the year, more than twelve months after the access road was put in, the equip-

ment promised under the JOAM part of the project came through: the fencing, the ‘rota

tiller’ and the desired 60% shade cloth to recover the green house, but it was all in a

rush and a handful of the members had to work really hard to meet the deadlines in fact

a group were fencing at the organic plot when the Michael Manley Award judges visited.

We were buoyed from having been selected as winners in the CTA contest and I went in

April to the Dominican Republic to represent the group I submitted our first confer-

ence paper and made a presentation of the Multimedia Centre story, I again repre-

sented at the AMARC- world association of community radios broadcasters conference

in Haiti and submitted a similar paper, this time further highlighting the Climate Change

features of the group’s work. Previously when we had been asked to contribute at a

planning and policy gatherings we were never asked to put our ideas or contributions in

writing but I guess it is part of the process, our friends come and see what we are

about, tell their friends, our reputation is enhanced and our opinion considered. Stu-

dents continue to come and look at what we do, some study the community and the

four Masters Students from Minnesota used Jeffrey Town as a home base for their field

practicum on the economic feasibility of breadfruit flour processing.

We wanted to celebrate but we had to wait for the prize money to come so we postponed

the twentieth birthday party of the group and AGM until September when we hoped to

do justice to both. At the Labour Day working Orane brought a page from the Sunday

Gleaner announcing the Scotia Goes Green Competition so we sat together and

drafted an entry for Jeffrey Town,

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Neither of us quite believed it could be true, it seemed too simple, tell us what you

have done, get your friends to ‘Like’ it on Face book and win. We entered anyway and

set about encouraging our friends to vote. Within the same time frame Rosamond sent

the Communication for Social Change Award (CSC) entry and after carefully reading

the criteria I saw that we had a valid case, l put together a detailed entry for JTFA sup-

ported by Ayanna Samuels and Rosamond. So our hat was in five different rings; CTA-

winners already, BEST community, Michael Manley, Scotia and CSC; all to be revealed in

July/ August. It’s a funny thing to enter competitions for Jeffrey Town, one has to check

the criteria and then assess the body of work available for judgment, done to fulfill a

need, not a competition; then you collate the evidence, ask your friends to referee and

then wait and see.

A glimpse of the School Tour.

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The youth group at the radio was making its own waves with the School Tour, where

they promoting “Love, Learn, and Believe” to the primary school children they had se-

lected as audience. The “Me and Mi Baby Too” series was produced, a series of Christ-

mas Programmes, Saturday Morning Special for young children and Anansi stories all

added value to the listening experience on Jet FM. We find now that schools are asking

our youth members to come to career days and talk about media to the students. I

have encouraged them to talk about the value of volunteering too, as it is fundamental

to what we do and what we have achieved collectively. Even when there is payment

available through a project we have always given over and above, simply because we

can’t expect someone else to pay for everything we want, and regardless of the effort

we are the beneficiaries. It calls to mind a comment made in 2012 by VP Small about the

gabion wall in Wallingford, the community had to put in its pound of flesh but after

three weeks of incessant rain from April – May “The wall is more than a blessing to the

community,” standing firm, ensuring safety.

The group waited patiently for the results to come in, the Scotia date kept on being put

back making us think it would never happen. Mean while we submitted our water catch-

ment plans to the parish council for the drought and flood mitigation CIDA project and

met the deadlines for EFJ and GEF grant proposal calls; these represent the group’s un-

dertaking of 2012 plus the Festival.

Finally our CTA prize money arrived late July and the announcements began, no luck with

the BEST community at the Parish level, we were perplexed and disappointed but we

set it aside. Next the Communication for Social Change a commendation and some tell-

ing words of praise closely followed by an invitation to lunch in the boardroom at Scotia

Centre, second prize and the start of the media frenzy. Scotia took out a full page ad-

vertisement about the awards and posted the ceremony on Youtube and then the Mi-

chael Manley on August 1. It was a signal honour, our work was viewed by the audience

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of the Little Theatre and we were applauded during the video presentation itself, all of

the competing organizations presidents were ushered back stage and then the an-

nouncement- Jeffrey Town! The only group to be twice winners indicating that self reli-

ance is inherent in this community. I looked and listened to the younger members who

were ecstatic, our friends were delighted the audience really celebrated with us, it was a

special moment of recognition and really humbling. You hear people talk of humility but

that day I understood it empirically, nothing we have been involved in Jeffrey Town has

been for glory much of it not even for money and yet we were lauded for our contin-

ued efforts, the clear evidence that a plan was in place, that succession planning was in

place and that integrity and transparency were paramount. JTFA featured in the media

again, the Gleaner, the Observer, the Sunday Gleaner and the national News and a host

of radio station interviews. We were specially recognized at the National BEST Awards

Ceremony and on Heroes Day an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Parish of

St. Mary. The feeling of pride was palpable even in the wider community.

The annual general meeting was planned to include an awards ceremony of our own and

mark belatedly the twentieth birthday of the association. The generosity of Mary

McLaughlin, a glazier of international renown, allowed us to present as gifts personalized

hand painted paper weights to our funding partners, we commissioned birthday buttons

and made a special AGM edition of the Bulletin. I was close to tears as the building rang

out with the voices singing ‘To God Be the Glory’; traditionally we had sung the farmers

song ‘We Plough the Fields and Scatter” but as the association diversified and became

more influential I included my personal favourite; I was taken back to the Radio Launch

in 2008, the last time when there were so many of us together celebrating the achieve-

ments of JTFA, I cried that day in relief that we were able to get everything done. Both

were days of eminence, red letter days when so many kind and complementary things

were said by people of substance, some of that praise was personal and our president

Wordsworth, my husband

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not least among them, told the world I was perfect and gave me an ‘eco-drive’ watch, its

battery is powered by the sun to acknowledge my love for solar energy and my per-

sonal drive to make solar a reality in Jeffrey Town.

We shared the events with the Jet Fm community by broadcasting the greetings, guest

speaker, Dr. Peta-Ann Baker and the Awards live, Romae was the on air host, Patrick

supervised and Rosamond with her fabulous radio voice took over from VP Johns for

this part of the programme. The CTA prize winning team was singled out and given a

cash reward; the chicken farmers got something, our out going VP Sharon Fyffe was

specially recognized and the changing of the guard begun by Romae being added to the

executive, Horace becoming acting radio Manager taking over from Seymour Sexton

who had gone abroad and Orane taking the slot of first Vice President. We were able

to present vast amounts of fresh produce for our guests to take home with them and

used the occasion to present some of our most promising value added products: the

red pepper jerk seasoning; the range of specialty breadfruit products including a unique

orange and breadfruit preserve; hash browns, flour and the dumpling mix are designed

to star in the 2012 Festival with the punch plus the newest item, exquisite organic

strawberry conserve. The dream of the factory space is still alive, our application to the

government run REDI programme though the social investment fund has been declined

but we intend to appeal and while hoping we will continue to work, raise funds and

lobby, this piece of the puzzle is critical as it will underpin the groups chances of reduc-

ing the socio- economic challenges faced by the subsistent farmers in the community. A

place to sell the goods grown on the farms, a place to add value and employ some of

the non farmers, this one act alone could further change the face of Jeffrey Town.

We took heed of a comment made to include all geographical areas of the community and

used the disaster committee to bring in new people. ODPEM, Office of Disaster Prepar-

edness and Emergency Management included Jeffrey Town as a late entry into

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their Building Disaster Resilient Communities project.

During an intense six month period more than twenty people were taken through the

process of building a disaster plan, this included mapping the community and highlighting

the dangers as well as identifying those people and homes most at risk, followed by

emergency drills, shelter management training, search and rescue training and first aid.

Here again Jeffrey Town was singled out to present for all the participating groups in the

project, event those who had been working with ODPEM for more than two years sim-

ple because our community members showed themselves to be informed and moti-

vated.

Some times I wonder how so much could have been done. The words may be few but the

work really has been significant. I pause here in my recollections of the Jeffrey Town

Story; looking back over the years and the achievements I’m reminded of Mrs. Grant’s

words of encouragement, “Do your part and let God do the rest.,” Her words have

kept me on the difficult days and sharpened the reality on the great days. We have cer-

tainly played our part, collectively and individually and as in all things some more than

others but it is clear for all to see that our community has been truly blessed. It is a bet-

ter place because of the long term community development efforts of the farmers asso-

ciation and the selfless gift of service from our president Wordsworth Gordon, who is

still committed to furthering our cause at every opportunity. Let’s see what happens

next!

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The Awards

2006 Michael Manley Award for Community Self Reliance

2007 BEST Community Award: Parish Runners Up.

2009 BEST Community Award: Parish Winners and all sectional prizes– below


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2010 Jamaica Environment Trust Action Awards in three categories

2011 Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA) and Taiguey Foundation:

2011 Commendation from the University of

Queensland, Australia; Communication for Social

Change Award. “...The Centre commends your contribution to

innovative and practical communication that has contributed to grass-

roots-level sustainable development”.

The Awards


“Innovations in Operation”

Best Telecentre In Caribbean

Sustainable

Agriculture

Best

Environmental

Community

Best Youth

Leader

Best Environmental Community 2012

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The Awards

2011 Scotia Goes Green Award –

Runner Up.

An on line competition to

increase awareness of

Scotia Goes Green initiative.


Michael Manley Award 2011 Community Self Reliance,

the only group to win the award twice.

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Minutes AGM 2011

“Minutes: Annual General Meeting Sunday September 25 2011

Meeting called to order by the chairman Ronald Johns at 3:05pm Ainsworth Forsythe offered the welcome

and said please pay special attention to what is taking place and please to enjoy the afternoon.

Hilda and Lincoln led devotion celebrating 20 years; we sang to God be the Glory, read a scripture form the

bible and prayed.

Roll call of members took place; sixteen members present apologies for Barry, Lucien and Roy all away,

Dwight Ramsey, Mekae Gordon, Robert Montague.

There were no obituaries.

I Gordon read the minutes for the 2010 AGM, there were no corrections, minutes confirmed by Hilda Town-

send and seconded by Orane Brown.

Matters Arising

1. Nothing has been done about the goat breeders’ money.

2. Pump still needs to be repaired it is worse now

3. Joan Small is no longer a member of the association

4. Position of JTFA and the Member of Parliament is clearly explained in the minutes there is no residue or

bad feeling.

5. R. Johns still passionate spoke about the need for additional income for the radio; he said his lack of

mobility is preventing him from doing more to assist in this area. He continued that many people are not

aware of what JTFA is doing.

Income generating activities continue

Reports were read at this point as per copy in 2011 programme document

Orane Brown-Youth

Lincoln Small-Agriculture

Romae Ormsby- Radio

Ivy Gordon- Secretary’s notes. Wordsworth Gordon made a comment about the amount of work that has

been done since last AGM and commended Ivy on the report.

3:55 we took elections, Ainsworth Forsythe led the processes as 14/16 of members present confirmed

Orane Brown as new 1st Vice president and Romae Ormsby as Youth rep.

Both newly elected executive members addressed the meeting expressing their individual hope and in-

tent to do well.

Raymond Martin JOAM brought greetings, he said our achievements were tremendous and that certifica-

tion as organic is a difficult process. He offered congratulations.

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Minutes

“Patrick Prendergast CARIMAC from the department of humanities in the faculty of education at UWI MONA

brought greetings he highlighted Dr. Protz and Rosamond Brown, he asked for applause for the youth group

working on the radio, made special mention of the CTA award and offered congratulations.

Liz Terry said thanks for the invitation , she offered congratulation and said that ICT4D Jamaica is only 7 year s old. She reflected in how far we had come from Mas Pressie’s basement in 2006 and dreaming of engaging the youth. She said we had done a great job of making partnerships, HEART, UNESCO and the introduction to Commonwealth of Learning. We were invited to ICT4D AGM in November and invited to serve

on the board.

Ronald Johns spoke about our still wanting a tractor and our hope for progress with the new Minister of Agri-

culture, Robert Montague.

Havagay Walters offered congratulations and happy birthday to JTFA

Ronald Derrett gave greetings and called JTFA a Nobel institution and wished us all the best.

We took a 15 minutes break to allow for the late arrival of some of our guest due to heavy rain in Kingston.

When we resumed Nickeisha Reid Consultant for JOAM/ FAO/EU food facility programme spoke of the benefits of organic farming, said it was a bold step that needed hard work and research. She expressed her

appreciation of JTFA, always willing to work hard and try need things such as the organic greenhouse.

Jacqueline daCosta National BEST Programme said she was surprised JTFA has not won St. Mary Parish consistently and encouraged us to enter again next year. She offered congratulation to the community and the whole Jamaica as we work collectively toward the 2030 vision. Approximately 50% of registered commu-nities enter the BEST competition; she said wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if there were more communities

like Jeffrey Town.

Wordsworth Gordon gave the presidents report, it wasn’t without amusement as he lost his place and he

mentioned that Michael Barnaby has been asked to fill a temporary position as supervisor at CVM TV.

Orane Brown introduced our guest speaker Dr. Peta Anne Baker: she thanked Orane for his brief introduc-

tion which was to her liking and apologized for her late arrival.

As chief judge of the Michael Manley award she offered congratulations for our achievements and on 20 years of existence and said we had 20 more years of work to do. She spoke of the history of hidden commu-nity groups in Ja. Guy’s hill has the first Agro Co-op, Carron Hall, Walkers Wood, Sturge town 2nd free village to name a few and that we should organize the youth of these communities to have the story told so that we

will know how far we have come as a people.

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Minutes

In Jeffrey Town there will be much more training to do as the young people will revolve, she called the youth group to come forward as show themselves who hope to have a position of leadership in JTFA, she encour-

aged and charged us to continue to work, not to worry about prizes, winners always keep winning.

Montserrat needs help with breadfruit ideas and community development and we should invite some of their

leaders here.

Rosamond Brown led the awards section. First she offered her congratulations and said our name had gone

around the world and particularly at the partners meeting of COL in South Africa.

The main contributions of all of our friends were read and those present received a token from JTFA.

Internal award were give to 4 chicken farmer, vouchers for five bags of feed and to the group of eight qualify-ing members of the CTA prize group cheques of 12,000 were given, Wordsworth and Ivy Gordon though part

of this group did not get a cheque.

Baskets were given to guest speak, Ms DaCosta for helping with the presentations and to Sharon Fyffe Ja-

garoo for services as Vice president.

Dennesha Cormack read the vote of thank beautifully, she was interrupted by W.G to make a presentation to

his wife for her contribution to JTFA.

Lincoln Small called for adjournment, seconded by Horace Walters, we held closing devotions and the meet-ing ended at 6:10pm with 18 members present, 17 Guests, 5 associates and 21 friends- (people from Jeffrey

Town) =60

Refreshments were served.

Minutes prepared by I Gordon.

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Membership at AGM

ARCHER STANLEY

BAILEY KESNA

BAILEY SIMONE

BARNABY MICHAEL

BENNETT ARTHUR

BENNETT BARRY

BENNETT LUCIEN

BROWN CLARENCE

BROWN ORANE

BROWN PAUL

CHRISTIAN WILLIAM

CAMERON NYRON

CAMPBELL LEWIS ADANE

COLE KEMAR

CORMACK DENESHA

CORMACK LIONEL

DAVIS FITZROY

DERRETT OLIVIA

FORSYTHE AINSWORTH

FYFFE SHARON

GORDON IVY

GORDON MEKAE

GORDON WORDSWORTH

GRANT GLEN

JAGEROO WAYNE

JOHNS RONALD

JOHNSON RONALD

KINSLEY RODNEY

LENNOX CABRINA

MARSH NOVELETTE

MORGAN JEREMAINE

ORMSBY ROMAE

PADDYFOOT JUNE

PANTON LEROY

RAMSEY DWIGHT

RICHARDSON RICARDO

RICKETTS GLEN

SEXTON SEYMOUR

SIMMS HERBERT

SMALL JULIET

SMALL LINCOLN

STEPHENSON ROSE

TOWNSEND HILDA

WALTER HAVAGAY

WALTERS HORACE

WHYTE CLOVER

WONGSUE GERMALEE

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Read more about JTFA at the internet

links below

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110807/focus/focus1.html

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/110291_Jeffery-Town-Farmers-

Association-takes-Manley-Community-Award

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110803/lead/lead91.html

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060802/lead/lead1.html

http://www.cta.int/en/About-us/CTA-news/Caribbean-Telecentre-Contest-

Winners-Awarded

http://podcast.amarc.org/conference_caraibe/premiere/

jeffreytownIvyGordonHaitiMay2011.pdf

http://www.caribbean-telecentres.net/profiles/blogs/results-of-the-contest

http://mobile.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100926/lead/lead5.php

http://wikieducator.org/images/8/85/

JET_FM_Environmental_Learning_Programme_Preliminary_Report_August_17.

pdf

http://www.scotiagoesgreen.com/project/eco/greening-our-community

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMf-2_k-gY


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Acknowledgements

To each and every volunteer, member and friend JTFA says thank you and to the agen-

cies listed below; your guidance, encouragement and funding made it possible.


Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication

Commonwealth of Learning

Digicel Foundation

Environmental Foundation of Jamaica

European Union Banana Support Programme

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Global Environment Facility– Small Grants Programme

Grace Kennedy Foundation

ICT4D Jamaica

Inter American Foundation

Jamaica Agriculture Society

Jamaica National Foundation

Jamaica Organic agriculture Movement

Jamaica Protected Area Trust

Jamaica Social Investment Fund

Jamaica Sustainable Development Network

Local Initiative Facility for the Environment formerly UNDP

RADA, JCDC, SDC– State agencies in Jamaica

The Canada Fund

The Chase Fund

Trees That Feed Foundation

UNESCO

University of Technology Jamaica

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Still Adding Resilience

Wallingford March 2012

the jeffrey town story

Documents