Head of the Salvation Army's eastern division, Major Kervin Harry, says the year 2009 will be one of the army's "gravest", due to the sharp decline in the donations it so greatly depends upon to fund its work.

Harry was speaking to The Gleaner in relation to the work and state of the Salvation Army's eastern division, on the eve of the army's week of celebrations. This week, May 18-23, is being celebrated as Salvation Army Week.

Even as the army celebrates the strides it has made, Harry says there are currently great funding constraints on the organisation to maintain its programmes and to expand.

"We are living in difficult times. The army's programmes are chiefly dependent upon donations and pledges, and because of the global economic downturn we have been affected," said Harry.

One particular effect of the decline in contributions has been the inability of the Salvation Army to implement programmes it has developed to benefit the nation's poorest, and most unskilled.

"Right now, we cannot move into any new programmes because of our budget constraints. One of the areas we have on the drawing board right now is the concentration of development within the inner city," Harry went on to explain.

Plans for skill-training centres

The Salvation Army has already drawn up plans to develop learning resource and skill-training centres in neglected inner-city communities like Jones Town, Allman Town and Rae Town.

The development of these centres is a goal, Harry explained, which would help the Salvation Army to ensure the impact it has on communities is long-lasting.

"We don't want to be spoon-feeding people with food. We want to teach them how to fish so that they can help themselves. Feeding programmes and those kinds of social services are short term - they don't really help in the long term," Harry argued.

The plans have been sidelined, however, and are now awaiting the support of corporate sponsorship to come alive.

The Salvation Army, through the wide range of social services it provides across the nation, is viewed as one of the nation's critical non-governmental organisations. The organisation's eastern division currently operates three children's homes, the Francis Ham Senior Citizens' Residence for the Indigent, the Rae Town Medical Clinic and several street people feeding programmes, and a number of other social services.