Juice Processing workshop in Mountain View

The sweet scent of mango pervaded a room usually reserved for homework and meetings earlier this week on Jacques Road in the community of Mountain View. The reason for this pleasant diversion was that roughly two dozen youths from the inner-city community were taking part in a Juice Processing Workshop sponsored by the Scientific Research Council. The workshop is intended to motivate these young people (most of whom are unemployed) provide them with a skill and ultimately, the means to achieve income-generation. (Jamaica’s youth unemployment rate is about 40 per cent and for Mountain View, it is probably higher than that).

“This is a high crime area,” said Scientific Research Council administrative assistant Nicole Colley-Lewis, “and men are prone to become part of a gang. If they are trained, it is less likely that they will go to a gangs and instead they may start a business,” she said.

The workshop was arranged by the SRC through the Social Development Commission and offered several hours of training in juice processing. This included hands on activities like sterilizing the bottles, mixing the cordial (sweet syrup) with water according to strict chemical formulations and boiling the mixture to achieve the perfect combination. Indeed, many of the youth were taking extensive notes of complicated chemical equations.

“This is definitely something I would be interested in,” said Odayne Treasure, who already has a certificate for bar tending. Garnett Rhoden, 33, agreed. “It requires a lot of help and dedication to start a business, but yes, if given the chance, I would” he said of the opportunity to use this training to start such a business. Rhoden is currently doing “any likkle thing to make money,” including working as a barber and a mechanic. He is also a talented landscaper, but because he does not have his own equipment, he cannot compete with others who do. What Rhoden really wants to do, however, is continue training to be certified as a barber. He can already do intricate designs when he cuts people’s hair, a practice which can earn him $1,000 (about $10US) every time.

This is a common challenge for inner-city youth: they do not lack the passion, nor is there a shortage of ideas, rather, they are not exposed to the opportunities such as training in how to start a business that their peers can access. That is why for this juice processing workshop, the next stage is to receive such training. Beyond learning the formulations to make the juice, they will receive training in how to start a business. This will include sessions with the Jamaica Business Development Council on how to write a business plan, among other instruction.

“We are hoping that these youth gain some knowledge to start thinking about generating their own business,” said Social Development Commission Community Development Officer Princess Bryan-Colley. Ultimately, the goal is to create a small business making juice that could be sold back to community members or schools and become an income-generating activity.

“We hope they gain more knowledge and become more self-reliant and gain skills that they can use for income generating activities. We also want to teach them some discipline,” said Jacques Road Parenting Association’s Francena Pryce.