分类： society

As part of Jamaica’s annual Child Month celebrations, Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information hosted a landmark inclusive gathering on Thursday, creating a judgment-free, supportive space where children with special needs across the Corporate Area could share their experiences and build connections. The event, held on the scenic lawns of Devon House in St. Andrew, brought together students from five specialized institutions across the country: the Salvation Army School for the Blind, Danny Williams School for the Deaf, Carberry Court School of Special Education, Randolph Lopez School of Hope, and Hope Valley Experimental School. This gathering formed a core component of the ministry’s groundbreaking Child Conversations initiative, which centers underrepresented youth voices in public policy and community programming. Centered on the urgent theme “Prioritising our children’s mental health, stronger minds, safer future”, the event also broke new ground by pairing students with disabilities with neurotypical, able-bodied peers, creating structured opportunities for cross-group dialogue and mutual understanding. Hyacinth Blair, senior director for Children’s Affairs and Policy at the ministry, explained the core goals of the initiative in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, emphasizing the critical, often overlooked role of mental wellness in overall child development. Blair stressed that the event sought to demystify mental health for young Jamaicans, pushing back against harmful societal stigmas that frame discussions of emotional struggle as a sign of dysfunction. “We want our children to understand that it’s okay to be sad about things. It’s okay to talk about things. Mental wellness doesn’t mean that you are mad, so to speak. We want them to understand that as much as it is important to be physically well and emotionally well, mentally well is also a part of it,” Blair told the outlet. Blair pointed out that children without disabilities often lack exposure to peers with special needs, leading to unintended insensitivity and even open bullying. By bringing both groups together for open conversation, the initiative aims to foster lasting empathy and allyship among young people. “We have paired them with able-bodied peers, and we want conversations so that there is a greater level of understanding between children who do not have challenges and our special needs children so we can have more collaboration, more understanding,” Blair said. “Children can be really cruel. You may see a child with special needs and another child will want to tease them. So we want them to understand each other more, to talk more. And so with a greater level of understanding, you as a child who does not share the same challenge, you may be in a crowd with other students, and because you were exposed to that child or that special need, you can be able to say to your peers, ‘Don’t do that’ or ‘Don’t say that.’” Blair also highlighted a troubling gap in support systems for disabled children: global and local research confirms that children with special needs face a drastically higher risk of abuse and mental health struggles than their peers, in large part because societal stigma has long pushed conversations about youth mental health into the shadows. Compounding this risk, many disabled children face communication barriers that leave them unable to report harm or access existing support services. “It’s probably greater among them because sometimes we don’t remember them as we ought to. And sometimes they can’t articulate their challenges or their problems as well as the other child because of the issue that they may have,” Blair explained. “There was a time when we would not talk about mental health. It’s something that we keep in the closet, but we understand now that in order to develop strong minds and to have a safer future for our country, then our children need to be mentally well. One of the ways really is to be able to express yourself, to talk about the things that are bothering you, and to find solutions. To feel safe in expressing themselves. We want it to become a normal part of life.” Blair used the 211 national child abuse reporting hotline as an example of a critical service that fails disabled youth: children with speech or hearing impairments often cannot access the phone-based hotline, leaving them with no safe way to report harm. This gap, she argued, underscores the urgent need to develop alternative, accessible communication channels that meet the unique needs of disabled children. “If a child doesn’t speak well, doesn’t hear well, then it’s hard for them to articulate how it is they’re feeling,” she noted. The initiative has already earned widespread praise from educators at specialized schools, who have long called for more targeted support for disabled students’ mental health. Sashoir Murphy Hewitt, a teacher at the Danny Williams School for the Deaf, welcomed the event as a long-overdue step to address the isolation many deaf students face in Jamaica. “I think the initiative will be very beneficial, especially to the deaf students, because Jamaican Sign Language is not a language that is publicly known, and that is their first language, so many time they don’t have persons to communicate with or who understand them or who they feel comfortable to share whatever they are going through,” Murphy Hewitt said.

In the tense community of Granville, St James, Jamaica, a standoff has emerged between local law enforcement and residents following a string of controversial fatal shootings involving security forces. Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels, the commanding officer for the St James Police Constabulary, has drawn a hard line: while peaceful demonstrations, including a planned march this Sunday, remain permitted, no community event approvals will be issued until residents end their widespread road blockades.

Unrest has roiled Granville for weeks, sparked by back-to-back fatal police shootings that have left the community reeling. The most recent death came on May 17, 2026, when Latoya “Buju” Bulgin was shot and killed by a police officer while she was transporting people protesting an earlier killing. Seven days prior, 17-year-old Tjey Edwards—Bulgin’s cousin’s son—was shot dead by an officer during the wrap-up of a police operation in the area. These deaths come on top of three other fatal police shootings on New Year’s Day, which claimed the life of four-year-old Romaine Bowman and two adult men, leaving cumulative grief and anger simmering across the neighborhood.

In response to the killings, residents have erected repeated blockades on key access roads leading into and out of Granville. Last Monday’s demonstration was the most intense to date, forcing police and firefighters to spend days clearing barricades and extinguishing burning debris left by protesters. Speaking at a community meeting held Thursday evening at Granville Primary School, Samuels made his position clear to assembled residents: roadblocks are a non-negotiable red line that puts all event permits on hold.

“Blocking roads benefits no one, and that’s why I can’t approve any event permits right now,” Samuels told the crowd. He explained that ongoing blockades create a public safety hazard that makes hosting and attending community events unacceptably risky. “If roads are blocked anywhere in the area, all planned events get canceled immediately. The tension that comes with blockades means the space isn’t safe for organizers or attendees.”

Since blockades began, Samuels confirmed he has already been forced to reject permit applications for four upcoming community events. He stressed that residents cannot simultaneously maintain road blockades and expect approval for public gatherings: “You can’t have it both ways. Our priority is safety and security. Right now, our patrol resources are tied up responding to roadblocks instead of patrolling the neighborhood, monitoring public events, and keeping residents safe as they go about their daily lives. If we’re stuck playing cat-and-mouse with blockaders, we can’t do the work that supports the community.”

When pressed by residents about the string of recent fatal shootings, Samuels noted that all cases are currently active under investigation, and he is barred from commenting on ongoing probes. Still, he acknowledged the pain the community is feeling: “Any loss of life hurts everyone, on both sides. No one wants to see unnecessary death. We believe everyone should live out their full lives.”

Samuels also warned that blockades put ordinary residents at disproportionate risk, pointing to the community’s population of between 13,000 and 15,000 people. “If even one person needs emergency police or medical help and can’t get it because the road is blocked, that person could die,” he said. “A woman in labor might not get to the hospital in time, people can’t get to their jobs to earn a living. More harm comes from this action—it only makes a bad situation worse.”

The senior superintendent stressed that he is ready and willing to approve the planned Sunday peaceful march and upcoming funeral events honoring Bulgin, as long as residents commit to ending road blockades permanently. During the meeting, residents voiced sharp criticism of security forces’ conduct in the shootings. Bulgin’s own son spoke up to condemn police for failing to reach out to his family in the wake of her death, saying: “Everyone knows where Buju lives if they wanted to talk to us.”

For Samuels, a key priority right now is protecting the hard-won progress Granville has made over the past several years to reduce violence and stabilize the once-volatile neighborhood. “What we need to do now is rebuild the trust and relationship we had between police and this community,” he said. The Thursday meeting was also attended by prominent community activist O Dave Allen and Dwight Crawford, Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — As the Caribbean region braces for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially kicks off on June 1, Jamaica’s National Works Agency (NWA) has launched a major infrastructure upgrade initiative to strengthen flood management systems across St Andrew parish. The multi-million dollar project targets the rehabilitation of sections of six critical gullies, key water infrastructure that reduces flooding risk during intense tropical storm activity.

The six gully sections marked for upgrades include two stretches of the Constant Spring Gully along Carawina Avenue, the waterway passing beneath Torrington Bridge, Yoro Crescent Gully, Burgher Gully, and Gem Road Gully. Stephen Shaw, NWA’s Manager of Communication and Customer Services, confirmed that on-site construction has already started at two of the targeted sites: Yoro Crescent Gully and Gem Road Gully.

At the Gem Road Gully location, crews are focused on reconstructing a segment of the gully’s retaining wall and invert — the channel floor designed to facilitate unobstructed water flow. Shaw noted that this portion of the work is already approaching completion. For Burgher Gully, permanent upgrades are set to begin in the near future, following extensive temporary stabilization work NWA completed ahead of Hurricane Melissa’s landfall in 2025. The separate contract for Burgher Gully is valued at more than $30 million, and will cover repairs to damaged sections of the waterway’s invert and retaining walls.

According to NWA’s project timeline, construction at all remaining unstarted gully sites is scheduled to break ground before the end of June, putting the infrastructure upgrade on track to be completed ahead of the peak of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, which typically runs from August through October. The initiative forms part of Jamaica’s broader efforts to upgrade critical climate resilience infrastructure across the island, which faces recurrent tropical storm and flooding threats each Atlantic hurricane season.