Initiative To Bring Peace To Rival Gangs Moves To Wilton’s Yard

An initiative to bring peace to the rival Sixx and Seven gangs will move to Wilton’s Yard, Castries on Sunday, organisers have disclosed.

Earlier this week, under the auspices of the community advocacy group Strive, gang members met in New Village, Castries, to advance the peace process and quell violence among them.

Strive spokesman Michael ‘Toka’ Phillips told St. Lucia Times that the upcoming event on Sunday had received financial support from Castries Central MP Richard Frederick.

Phillips also revealed plans to obtain sponsorship from concerned individuals and business owners in the areas affected by gang activity.

“Once you are concerned about crime and you want to see that change, they should come on board,” the Strive official declared.

He explained that the plan is to gather young gang members in Wilton’s Yard. “We are getting some facilitators to speak to them. We’ll have a counselor there. We’re trying to get an Inspector (of police). We’re even trying to get a Magistrate to come and speak to them. We’re trying to get people from Bordelais (Correctional Facility) to come and speak to them,” Phillips told St. Lucia Times.

He revealed that the whole-day event will include eats and drinks and a football competition. According to Phillips, the plan is to achieve peace and tranquility not only in Central Castries, but evewntually throughout Saint Lucia.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that similar past initiatives have not endured because the peace treaties did not receive sufficient private-sector support and sponsorship, including individuals to teach life skills to gang members.

“So after a few months, the youth fall back into the same thing because they remain idle,” Phillips lamented.

He told St. Lucia Times that New Village was among the hotspots for Sixx and Seven gangs ‘war.’

“Now, I have my grandson. I have my daughters. I have my madam, and I have friends walking up that road. When the guys stay by the road, and they fire shots inside New Village, they don’t care who get hit. All they know is they have Sevens walking there, so they firing shots. So that’s a great concern for me. So this is for the safety of the New Village people and people along Chaussee Road where most of those things happen – Chaussee Road, New Village, St. Louis Street, Jeremie Street, Victoria Street,” Phillips stated.

He appealed to parents to accompany their youngsters to Sunday’s peace initiative in Wilton’s Yard, asserting that they seldom do.

“I have been doing that for the past years and when we invite the mothers, the fathers – well some fathers come, but when we invite the mothers, they don’t turn up,” Phillips told St. Lucia Times.

However, he recalled that earlier this week, ‘two or three’ mothers showed up and were in tears, realising that the situation of gang violence was ‘out of hand’. “Their sons are getting shot. Their sons are getting stabbed, so they are concerned,” Phillips observed.

He pleaded with parents and relatives of gang members to attend and support Sunday’s peace initiative in Wilton’s Yard.

“Those kids are our future, and if we don’t assist and rally with those young men, do you know what will happen? In the future we will have no lawyers, no doctors, no policemen, no ministers, because the gang culture will take all of them away from us,” the Strive spokesman said.

Stock image courtesy Stock Cake