Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine:
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS is just one of six criteria in the National Housing Trust's (NHT) Best Schemes Competition, which is open to some 136 housing schemes across the island, and it proved to be a key rallying point for residents of Angels Grove, St Catherine. Angel Groves beat back the challenges of 82 other housing schemes to take the award for the 2010-2011 year for what was truly a community victory.
The competition is staged every two years, and after placing second in the previous competition, Angels Grove residents took stock of the situation and went on a campaign to clean up their act to win $1.1 million and the coveted trophy. The competition, which saw judging in the areas of culture, health, education, environmental awareness, and governance, engen-dered an unprecedented level of community unity. "We have benefited immensely from participating in the competition, not just the monetary reward, but for the level of unity and camaraderie which has been fostered in the community," president of the Angels Grove Citizens' Association, Desrine Berry, said at Sunday's presentation and awards ceremony at Angels Primary School. Continuing, she said: "It allowed us to realise that governance of the community need not wait on outside forces, but that we can do for ourselves. It allowed us to explore avenues we would not otherwise have thought of." Berry said upon discussing the different categories under which they would be judged, community members began to recognise the importance of the value of working together to resolve differences as they strove to improve the aesthetics of the community. Josette Richardson, who was on hand to share in Sunday's joyous occasion, confirmed the importance of working together as a motivating factor to eclipse their previous second-place showing. Teamwork key "Teamwork was what most of the residents looked at, and we worked even harder, mostly with the green areas. Most residents, who had things like old cars parked on the road, got together to clean them up," she shared. She pointed out that getting people who operated 'house shops', in contravention of NHT rules, to desist from doing so was another major challenge. After discussing other business options with these people, some took their operations outside the scheme, even as others continued to resist. However, it was addressing the wanton burning of garbage which had the most immediate and direct positive impact on residents' health and the aesthetics of the community. Richardson recalled that people would just cut their lawns and burn the grass along with trimmings from hedges in designated green areas, coupled with the burning of plastic (mainly disposable drink bottles) usually on weekends, when more people were at home, was a real bother. Gladly, these are things of the past with the community environmental club headed by president Kadi-Ann Simpson with guidance from community 'elders' taking Angels Grove in a new direction, which proved pivotal in taking the top prize this year. The Holy Childhood fifth-former explained that with some 30-odd active members and the support of everyone in the community, Angels Grove is a much improved community. Berry, whose husband Linden spearheaded construction of a communal compost heap, spoke to the community's involvement in this area. "We put extra effort in ensuring the cleanliness and beauty of our community, ensuring our green areas, the streets and drains in the community are kept clean. Many residents embarked on backyard gardening projects. Some have even turned some of our green areas into farming projects. These we will be expanding with help from external agencies," she disclosed. christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com
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