SISTREN Theatre Collective, an independent organisation that does work in several inner cities, has criticised development planners for their treatment of these communities over the years, arguing that plans are being made without any idea of the real needs and without consultation.

Speaking at the weekly Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in the capital, Kingston yesterday, head of Sistren Lana Finikin said the situation on the ground was beyond the scope of her organisation, while pointing out that despite notions of development some inner-city residents are still forced to shower on the sides of the road in full view of the entire community because of poor infrastructure.

“Hannah Town residents in West Kingston are still having to shower on the side of the road… It’s not want, they need change. And it’s not just Hannah Town; it’s all the (inner-city) communities, and if you look at all the upscale communities right beside them there is an inner-city community and they need the change because they (have) tried,” Finikin told Observer reporters and editors.

“Nobody wants to live in wattle and daub, nobody wants to live behind a zinc fence or a in board house. Sometimes I wonder who drives our development planning and where they get the ideas from because if you speak to the people that really need to be developed then some of these plans that are being toted as plans, I wonder who they have spoken to,” she said further.

Using the Inner-city Housing Project as an example of planning without sufficient consultation, Finikin said not enough had been done to resocialise persons and prepare them to undertake their new responsibilities such as bill payments, which were new to most.

“You have to make the mortgage in line with the earnings of persons. You don’t give them a mortgage of $6,000 and know they don’t make that much from their hustling,” she said.

“Normally you get 40 years to repay a mortgage; give them 100 years and build in a system where their children become a part of that process. So whatever (their) ages, their names are on the title as well, so they know they are working towards something,” said the Sistren executive director.

“You can’t sit down and plan and not talk to them (inner-city residents). Don’t just do something because you want to look good,” she continued.

Finikin said from information gathered on the ground by her organisation, approaches have been made to the Community Development Councils (CDCs) in various communities who have tried to make a difference but said their efforts needed support from ‘higher-ups’.

Patrick Williams, male development specialist with Sistren, said a number of proposals have emanated based on needs assessments done by the CDCs.

“So when whomever reads the proposals they see it and they know it’s there,” he said, while bemoaning the inhumane condition of sanitary conveniences in a number of inner-city schools, some of which have inadequate lighting for already overcrowded classrooms.

Sistren Theatre Collective, an independent women’s organisation established in 1977, has been working in some of Kingston’s toughest communities, using theatre, dance, photography, and music to highlight social issues and foster inter-communal dialogue and reform.