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The absence of academic qualifications and job-ready skills have left residents feeling trapped in the farming community of Rat Trap in Westmoreland, without much hope of attaining prosperity to enhance their earning potentials.

Although the community has produced several doctors, lawyers, and teachers who received their early education at Kew Park Primary and Infant school, the opportunity for employment is not available in the community. Therefore, those who have attained the necessary knowledge and skill sets have left Rat Trap in search of employment.

“Both the young and the old are being challenged to survive, especially the youth. One of the challenges that I have observed in this community has to do with a lack of opportunities as it relates to jobs,” a teacher said. “The real challenge the young people here are faced with on a daily basis has to do with them getting a job; outside of farming, there really isn’t anything else for them to do.”

He also noted that the opportunity for these youth to gain personal financial prosperity is getting more challenging as they are not academically qualified or possess the necessary skills to enter the job market.

However, Leroy Gordon, principal of Kew Park Primary and Infant School, says there is some hope for these youngsters to at least equip themselves through the HEART Trust/NTA institution in Seaford Town.

“In recent times, I have noticed that quite a number of community members have been taking advantage of training in cake baking and other skills offered at that facility,” Gordon said. “To help themselves, I really wish that more persons from the community would take advantage of these training programmes so that they can take up jobs that are available in neighbouring Montego Bay.”

Gordon said that while farming is the main source of income for many, it’s not enough to give them adequate funding to meet their needs.

“I realise persons are already doing farming ... but there is a need for variation in farming; I realise most people are farming the same thing,” he said. “One of the popular things here is chicken rearing. Now, there is only one school here; I have about 14 suppliers from the community alone. So I try to support everybody, but the market isn’t big enough for everybody.”

He said poultry farmers have to look outside the community for additional markets.

Residents told us that the community of Rat Trap was so named because of one James McKenzie, who, at some point between the 1870s and 1880s, operated the only shop at the time.

It was strategically placed at the centre of a four-way crossroads.

It was the location of his shop that led McKenzie to refer to it as Rat Trap, joking that it would ‘catch’ everybody who passes through the square, enticing them to stop and purchase their groceries.