ONEIL

FORMER MEMBER AND CURRENT MEMBER OF STAFF – UP UNITY & PEACE (COLLECTIVE), JAMAICA

It feels really good to be in a role where I can feel our impact, helping my colleagues keep track of their progress and targets.

I joined Fight for Peace when I was 17 years-old. First, I was a part of the book clubs and boxing sessions, and later I joined the staff team working on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. This involves working with data and tracking and monitoring my colleagues’ work.

Computing is a passion for me, as well as working with the youth, so the work came relatively easy to me. I was given a two-day workshop with the software we use and I was a whizz in less than a week because of my computing level.

One of my biggest moments came when I was given this report to go through and I was able to come up with a properly laid out plan with clear steps to be taken and data to be measured at each stage.

We are very data-driven, because how else do you know if you are making a difference towards our goal? It feels good to be helping and valued by my colleagues. Also I get treated as somewhat of an elder in my community because of what we are doing as an organisation.

I can count on my fingers, toes and teeth the people who have told me that I will never amount to anything. But it is because of my experiences that I have reached where I have.

What I am experiencing now makes me feel that I can do way more. In ten years time I see myself running a similar organisation like Fight for Peace and ensuring that other young people are free of poverty and violence.