Ja: Jamaica, the stand up little brother

HAITIAN REFUGEES are to get vocational training to prepare them for their return home.

Dean Peart, Minister of Land and the Environment, disclosed this while outlining upgrading plans for the old army barracks at Montpelier, St. James, where Haitian refugees are to be housed. They are now in the eastern parish of Portland, from which they are to be transferred to Montpelier.

"It is important that we consider their development," Mr. Peart said on Saturday. "What I want to do is to sit down with Mr. Robert Gregory, executive director of HEART Trust/NTA, and work out a skills-training programme for the refugees."

There are buildings on the Montpelier compound that could be transformed into training areas, he said. "If they are here for another six or eight months to a year, when they leave Jamaica they will be empowered."

Here is a list of aid organizations in Jamaica if you wish to help the housing, feeding, clothing, and training of Haitian refugees:

Food For The Poor
P.O. Box 557
Ellerslie Pen,
Spanish Town, St. Catherine
Jamaica W.I.
Phone: (876) 984-5005
Fax: (876) 984-5006
email: E. E. Romeo
website:Food for the Poor

The Salvation Army

The Red Cross.