MANDEVILLE, Manchester (WOUNDED): Alwayne Smith looks to entrepreneurship. “Mi trying from last year to raise some chicken,” he said.... Wounded man moves to get life back on track

BY ALICIA SUTHERLAND Staff reporter sutherlanda@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, May 29, 2016  

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Ironically, it was his quest to find a job which landed 29-year-old Alwayne Smith in his present predicament, where he barely has an income.

In 2011 he was mysteriously and severely burnt at a house where he was staying, after leaving his home in Oxford, north western Manchester, for a job interview in the hotel industry in Montego Bay.

Alwayne Smith

In December last year, months after returning home following his prolonged stint in hospital for a second time, he was shot by gunmen in what was allegedly a case of mistaken identity, while returning from a river in his community where he went for a bath.

He said the gunmen attacked him and another member of his community, but he received more injuries because he could not move as quickly when the shots were being fired. Multiple surgeries later, he said that he is still recuperating from the burn attack. He said that he has recovered from the gunshot wounds.

With limited opportunities to earn an income these days, he told the Jamaica Observer that he has decided to try his hand at entrepreneurship.

“Mi trying from last year to raise some chicken,” he said.

Currently, he said, an allowance of $2,300 that he receives every other month from the Poor Relief Department is his only guaranteed source of income.

Based on a recent adjustment, he said that he will soon receive it every month, with the stipend being $1,190.

Smith, however, longs for a way to supplement the amount in order to make some long-term plans, especially as it relates to the education of his young son.

Alwayne Smith

He said his desire is to give his child, who was just an infant when he was burnt, a better life than he had growing up.

Smith said that his child does not live with him but when he checks he is told that due to inadequate funding, he is not going to school as often as he should.

He said that for his venture into the chicken-rearing business, he would like to start with about 100 chickens. Fortunately, he said that he has been promised some support through the Poor Relief Department to get the chickens and the necessary feed required. more