CHRISTINE HANNAYS Sunday, July 23 2006

“I WOULD rather give my best to living the gospel courageously than living safely and when I am old and rocking, think about what I possibly could have done,” said Roman Catholic priest, Father Jason Gordon, when asked about his role in easing gang violence in Gonzales through the “Pride in Gonzales” programme. The initiative recently won an Association of Caribbean Com-missioners of Police competition

Fr Gordon, parish priest of St Martin de Porres RC Church in Gonzales, said mediation allowed him to be successful in achieving peace in an area once ravaged by crime and gang violence.

“Like in every other human conflict, mediation is a way of dealing with the problem. If you can mediate, people tend to be able to find alternative ways of dealing with their conflict.”

Fr Gordon said he believed there was violence in Gonzales because it was the only way youths there felt they could solve their problems. The Pride in Gonzales initiative got off the ground in 2003, at a time when the East Port-of-Spain community was ravaged by violence, including six murders recorded in a five-week period. Fr Gordon enlisted support from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the Ministry of National Security and the Port-of-Spain City Corporation to get a community-building project started in the area.

Fr Gordon introduced a Community Intervention Trans-forming Youth (CITY) initiative which included an adolescent/ human formation programme during the week, remedial education programmes, music and sports.

Through Pride In Gonzales there have been clean-up exercises and community notice boards have been set up.

An Internet cafe, gang intervention, capacity building for community leaders, as well as counselling and crisis intervention strategies are all part of the on-going initiative

“There is a lack of alternatives that causes the violence, especially with young men,” said Fr Gordon. “If the only language they have ever known is a language of violence, when it comes to conflict it is the only language they will ever use. It is the same thing on the international level with Israel and Lebanon, for example. It is simply a replication of what is going on in Laventille and Gonzales.

“We start a war instead of going another route. It’s not primarily about the gangs. It’s a much deeper human condition that really requires a lot to teach them the language of peace, it takes a lot of restraint.”

Fr Gordon said with the success of the mediation system in Gonzales, there are plans to take the concept to other troubled areas.

“We have started some work outside of Gonzales in the last five months but we have kept it low profile because we want it to hit in the ground and start taking root. It’s still in a fragile place.

“We have been doing some work and have been in touch with other people doing similar things very quietly in other communities.

“We have been sharing ideas and experiences and we hope to find ways to bring a literacy of mediation and language of peace to several parts of the troubled communities. It takes a lot of time to build a lot of trust and the situation is very volatile.”

When asked if he was ever afraid that the gang members would one day turn their anger towards him, Gordon said: “It is always a possibility. This idea came out of a 30-day retreat and I really believe that God was asking me . . . to do something. What I am doing here is a direct response to something God is asking me to do. In truth, I am not doing this to protect myself but because of a higher call. If in the midst of this, something goes wrong, so be it.”