Focus
The Prince's Foundation for Building Community receives a £2 million grant to continue regeneration in Rose Town, Jamaica
8th February 2012
The Prince's Foundation for Building Community (PFBC) has received a donation over £2 million from donors and a USAID grant to continue its work in some of the most deprived areas of Jamaica.
The money will go towards the Foundation's project in Rose Town, near Kingston, where it will be used to improve important infrastructure, governance and community facilities.
Following a visit by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2000, the Rose Town regeneration project was set up. The Prince felt compelled to assist the community in the area after his visit, and his Foundation has been working closely with local people ever since.
Speaking at the PFBC Annual Conference in late January this year, The Prince said: “...it was over 12 years ago now that during an official visit to Jamaica I visited the slums in Kingston – a particularly challenging area."
“The frustrations experienced in trying to get anything off the ground were beyond belief, but the upshot was that my Foundation has been working for almost seven years in Rose Town... which has been plagued by gang violence for nearly 30 years.
“Working with local community members, they have managed to bring the two sides of the community together to work on a common plan, to train the young people and to start craft-based businesses, all funded by a group of British and American donors.
"And now, 12 years later, thanks to some generous support from the Department for International Development and U.S. AID, among others, we are moving forward to help residents obtain title to their homes, pave roads, ensure access to clean drinking water and improve sanitation and drainage.
"Such work has, I have been told by the people living there, had a profound impact on their lives and has helped to tackle the gang violence.”
Following a lot of violence in the 70s and 80s, the area of Rose Town became severely disadvantaged after many residents fled. Working closely with many supporters, including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), The Prince's Foundation for Building Community has helped local residents by giving them the skills necessary to re-build their area, and engaged with them to find out what it is they need most.
Angela Stultz, the Rose Town Project Manager, said that she was pleased with the work the new funding will support.
“The Prince’s Foundation has achieved significant success over the last 7 years. Its success is the real of long-term and sustained community engagement with the residents of Rose Town. It has enabled people within the community to feel a sense of hope that was sorely lacking.
"Alongside the generous support and assistance of other organisations such as the Rose Town Benevolent Society, DFID and USAID we have been able to make a real difference on the ground I believe that the new funding really will make a difference to a community where water is not consistently accessible to all and on the back of the land tenure achievements it is helping to bring a sense of stability to the area.”
Since the start of the Foundation's work in Jamaica it has been working closely with the Rose Town Foundation to help empower local residents by giving them the skills necessary to rebuild their community, teaching crafts including masonry and carpentry to help restore previously neglected buildings.
Working through a Masterplan, acting as a guiding framework, The Prince's Foundation for Building Community has already established community workshops to engage local residents and stakeholders, and has set up a two-year educational program for locals based around the renovation of a local house. These, amongst other projects, have helped form a solid base on which The Prince's Foundation can build with this most recent donation.
Watch a film about the work of The Prince's Foundation for Building Community in Rose Town: