Per­sons in the US with Caribbean roots have an oblig­a­tion to reach back home and touch fel­low cit­i­zens, ac­cord­ing to for­mer US Sec­re­tary of State Col­in Pow­ell.He made the point dur­ing a re­cep­tion host­ed by Gov­ern­ment in his ho­n­our at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.This fol­lowed the launch of a men­tor­ing pro­gramme in which he would be in­volved.Say­ing he was "glad to be back in the home­land" and nick­nam­ing him­self the "Caribbean", Pow­ell kissed the Mighty Spar­row who was among en­ter­tain­ers who pro­vid­ed mu­sic for the re­cep­tion.

Pow­ell said he was im­pressed by what the Gov­ern­ment was do­ing with the men­tor­ing pro­gramme. He said: "You're do­ing some­thing we al­so are try­ing to do in the US. Every­one has an oblig­a­tion to reach back and across and touch your fel­low cit­i­zens."Pow­ell said each and every one had a role to play in the men­tor­ing pro­gramme.Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter John Sandy, who said Gov­ern­ment in­tend­ed to spread the pro­gramme through­out the Caribbean, urged na­tion­als who came from chal­lenged ar­eas to come for­ward and re­turn there and help.He added: "We want them to go back there and say 'hey, I'm from this area and I made it. You can al­so'. This is all we need to push our­selves for­ward." (GA)