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T h ree young men from Riverton City, St Andrew, have ventured into pig farming business within their community. Trying to achieve t heir long-term goals, the young men are working assiduously to stay afloat, despite the negative view of their home.

Alex, 22, is a business management and marketing student at The University of the West Indies (UWI). He told THE STAR that despite the perception that outsiders have of their community, there are youths excelling in the community.

"You find that you have a lot of young, ambitious people that come out of this community. I was lucky to get a scholarship in first year at university and that's what helped me ... . After that, there were no more scholarships. I had to somehow find school fee ... . It's like US$3,000 (approximately J$421,600) in total, and that's steep," he said.

Nonetheless, they are being hampered by their address - the name Riverton carries a stigma that limits opportunities from which they could earn and send themselves to university, and thus, they created employment for themselves.

"We caa just go out there and get a work... people discriminate based on our address, so the next legitimate business is to do what most people in the community doing - raising pigs. I'm new to this, but I see the potential for it to pay for university."

Teo, a member of the team, is currently in his fourth year at the University of Technology (UTech), pursuing a degree in chemical engineering. He plans to apply for a student loan next year. He explains why he ventured into pig farming.

"Me grow up here. At the end of the day, a because of the lack of opportunity and all the economic constraints weh the country under. A nuh like we can just get up, send out a resume and get a job. And though people believe that where you come from nuh really affect you getting a job, it's still a thing," the 22-year-old related.

He plans to use livestock farming as an avenue to complete his degree. "It's not like we deh here and a try do an illegal activity. We literally just a try work and come up because without that, we caa pay school fee and we caa live. And the negative image weh people outside have of us in the community ... that a hinder we in the process."

Ming, a gym instructor, introduced his friends to pig farming. He told THE STAR that he thought it would be a good way for his friends to fund their studies.

"Me help dem out because a me fren dem... and me feel like each one help one out. One a go fully be a business man and the next one is a chemical engineer. The yute dem have wulleep a potential, dem solid and dem always a seek change. If the roles dem did switch, dem woulda help me out. And if the people dem dung here just work dem type a way deh, things woulda better," he said.