Hundreds of children collected packages at the back to school giveaway, held August 27 at the Nassau Village Urban Renewal Centre.  The community kids were part of the summer programme and other afterschool activities held at the centre.

 “We’re having a back to school giveaway where we invited the kids from our summer programme, children from the band and other persons in the community who are in need,” said Deborah Gibson, manager of the Centre.

 “We want to give the children books, bags, and whatever we get from donations and partners.  A lot of them have parents that cannot afford to send them back to school fully clothed, so whatever we can do to help, we do our best to assist them.”

 She said the centre wants to get more parents involved with the programmes, but has difficulties getting them to make a presence and volunteer their services.   Parents tend to treat the centre as a daycare facility and only a handful actually participate in activities.

 “We try to do a lot of programmes where we want to invite the parents out, but  the parents tend to send the children out and don’t participate as much as they should.  We need to get the parents involved in what is going on at the centre,” said Mrs. Gibson.

 Businesses outside the Nassau Village area send donations to the centre but a few sponsors within Nassau Village have also been supportive at community functions.

 “We had a big sponsor that donated all the school shoes, bags, shirts and blouses,” said Mrs. Gibson.

 She said this year, gang violence and car thefts are the chronic plagues of the area, which disrupts the community.

 “When we do walkabouts, if we call the police and they are in the area, they will assist us,” said Mrs. Gibson.

 “I think one of the biggest issues is car theft.  It seems that people, whenever they steal cars, they seem to bring it to the Nassau Village area.  A lot of times, when you see cars just left here and there, they are stolen.”