Jamaican Researcher » MLSS

Empowering Community Residents as Human Rights Advocates

jamresearcher — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:59:19 +0000

The Social and Economic Justice (SEJ) Project (of which there are various reports on the My Reports page) attempts to empower community residents and leaders about economic and social rights (ESR) and prepare them to be active change agents in the development process.

In light of this the SEJ Project sought to:

Educate community residents about human rights,
Gather primary data about their living situations and experiences realizing ESR, and
Equip residents with the skills necessary to participate in and execute advocacy and community mobilization.

The slideshow below shows residents of local communities actively engaged in advocacy to national leaders about ESR–the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Alvin McIntosh and the Minister, Hon. Pearnel Charles–of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in July 2008. Community leaders got an opportunity to articulate needs, challenges, and fears in relation to disability rights, youth unemployment, limited access to credit, etc. They were informed of the new initiatives and plans of the Ministry in addressing some of the issues that they raised.

[slideshow id=1657324662892219684&w=426&h=320]

Advocacy for Education Justice for the disabled in Jamaica

jamresearcher — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:12:41 +0000

As an extension of my work on socioeconomic justice in Jamaica, I was asked to sit on a working group created by the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL). While serving on this working group I advanced discussions about the need to design a literacy programme targeting members of the visually impaired community. This led me to create the following proposal to JFLL on behalf of visually impaired Jamaicans. Take a look… Proposal for Education Justice for the disabled

Employment Justice for Visually Impaired Jamaicans

jamresearcher — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:43:09 +0000

I just completed the first draft of the business development proposal (to the National Disability Board) for members of the Jamaica Society for the Blind’s Craft Unit. This is important because it seeks to secure sustainable employment for visually impaired Jamaicans. Though it is far from complete, I felt that it was at an advanced enough stage to share, especially because I recently posted photos of the focus group discussion (FGD) session that informed its creation.

I am fully aware of the fact that the proposal presented here is one-sided as it was based solely on the FGD session convened with workers/members of the Craft Unit. I have already commenced dialogue with other stakeholders of the Unit in order to set-up interviews aimed at garnering additional information for the proposal and anticipate some changes based on my interaction with the Unit’s manager over the course of this week. If substantial changes are made, I will be sure to publish the updated proposal.Check out the draft… Craft Unit Development Proposal