I’ve been involved in badness since I was 11 years old, when I had my little ‘one pop’ (single shot gun). When the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) first approached me I never took it seriously, because I was making too much money on the streets leading a gang here in Denham Town. But just three of us are left from a crew of… Read more →←
Topic: Safety and justice
People at school are always surprised when I tell them I do taekwondo with Fight for Peace. But now I have a green belt and I help coach! What I really like about it is learning self-defense. You can protect yourself on the road like a lot of times I have to use it at my school, Camperdown High School. Students that are bigger than me… Read more →←
I feel good in myself when I can sit down and listen to someone who has a similar experience to me being in state care. Because what I have been through I can literally say to them – “I am you!” Yet, when I was going through those experiences I could not even imagine that I would be alive today, because I did have a lot of suicidal… Read more →←
In 2017, a 17-year-old student named Mickolle Moulton was murdered. The outrage was intense, and the pain was profound. Her family, friends, teachers and those who wished to pay their respects gathered for a candlelight vigil in her honour. Despite the general atmosphere of sadness, the vigil was one that celebrated her life,… Read more →←
I was raised in West Kingston. Growing up where I did, I soon realised as a child that you got more support being deviant than being good. Good people treated you badly, and friends who were doing bad things also treated you badly. For any child who’s trying to be good in the middle of all that, life is going to be lonely. Most of my… Read more →←
For years, I thought I had no one, and believed that my mother abandoned me at a bus stop when I was six years old. Now, a month ago, I finally found my family. Here I am on the phone speaking to this woman 26 years later, having had all that as the truth in my mind, and after all those years alone in state care. Here we are talking on… Read more →←
I coach at Fight for Peace teaching youths martial arts as a way to get them to exert some energy and aggression that might be pent up in them throughout the day. Taekwondo is my passion and even though at 24 I have now been a world champion four times, my real passion is for coaching. I lost my father to violence at age 5. So, for… Read more →←
Dwight Cooper, aged 13, does not say much. Instead he leads other children through his actions. Their eyes following his movements, the taekwondo class shadows him step-by-step. Whenever a student makes a mistake, it does not prompt admonishment from Dwight. Instead his style is to pause the session, walk over and demonstrate the correct… Read more →←
My name is Courtney Greaves, I am eight years old and I want to be that voice for children who are voiceless. I like to listen to the news and if I hear something about a child I just get a piece of paper and write it down and put in a poem form and I will let my mother video it so I won’t forget it. The other day there was a girl… Read more →←
We have just arrived at a classroom in Denham Town, Kingston when an excited boy runs outside. Afew moments later he bolts back into the room, and soon after he is calmly leading a host of other young children in relaxation techniques. “Breathe deep!” he instructs, and everyone follows his lead – taking a long breath in and then… Read more →←