A relatively young volunteer organisation, Jamaicans for Community Development (JCD), has taken on its biggest assignment yet, launching a programme it hopes will help take illegal guns out of the hands of innercity youths.

The initiative, dubbed Pu dung di gun, is expected to realise its goal through social intervention programmes such as conflict resolution, skills training and job placement, mentoring and sporting activities within troubled communities.

The six-month-old organisation which has chapters in Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon and St Thomas will be working in conjunction with the Social Development Commission, as well as other local and international groups on the two-year campaign.

Speaking at Saturdays launch of Pu dung di gun at the New Testament Church of God along Waltham Park Road, JCD President Godfrey Lothian bemoaned the prevalence of gun murders across the island. He especially lamented Friday mornings brutal killings of two sets of families in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, including an 11-year-old girl, Alexifia Anderson.

Last year, 1,700 Jamaicans were murdered. This is a serious business, Lothian told a small group of guests. Then two nights ago eight persons were murdered in Tredegar Park. Two families were totally wiped out.

The victims were in bed when a group of about 20 heavily-armed men invaded their homes, an hour after midnight, spraying them with bullets. Two persons including a 15-year-old male believed by the police to be involved in the massacre were fatally shot several hours later. A third man was held Saturday when he turned up at hospital with gunshot wounds. He reportedly furnished a wrong name and address.

For more than a decade now, Jamaica has consistently averaged a gunmurder rate of 1,000 people.

The Pu dung di gun launch comes a week after an Observer article in which Security Minister Dwight Nelson said the Government was exploring the possibility of implementing a gun amnesty. Under an amnesty, owners of illegally-possessed weapons are granted immunity from charge encouraging them to bring in their guns. The last gun amnesty was called by then Prime Minister Michael Manley close to 40 years ago. That initiative saw the handing over of more than 700 guns.

During Saturdays launch, one speaker after another implored women living in troubled communities to rise up and use their influence to make the initiative a success. The speakers were of the view that women were privy to the illegal happenings within their communities. They were also spoken of as prospective agents of change.

Here in Jamaica, if the woman stands up, said JCD member Ann-Marie Lynch, we can cut down crime and violence in our communities.