Dozens of chil­dren of East Dry Riv­er, Port-of-Spain, may have been ex­pect­ing San­ta Claus at a fun day yes­ter­day but were in­stead giv­en a lec­ture about the ba­sic prin­ci­ples of Kwan­zaa. Coun­cil­lor for East Dry Riv­er, Isha Wells treat­ed chil­dren in the area to snacks and toys at the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union build­ing, Hen­ry Street.

She said the Kwan­zaa cel­e­bra­tion was cho­sen be­cause the sev­en prin­ci­ples were ben­e­fi­cial to the chil­dren's de­vel­op­ment. Kwan­zaa is a week-long cel­e­bra­tion held in the Unit­ed States but al­so cel­e­brat­ed in the West­ern African Di­as­po­ra. The cel­e­bra­tion ho­n­ours African her­itage in African-Amer­i­can cul­ture, and is ob­served from De­cem­ber 26 to Jan­u­ary 1, cul­mi­nat­ing in a feast and gift-giv­ing.

The sev­en prin­ci­ples are uni­ty, self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, col­lec­tive work and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, co-op­er­a­tive eco­nom­ics, pur­pose, cre­ativ­i­ty, and faith. Wells said, "I think it is nec­es­sary to teach that to the par­ents and chil­dren of East Port-of-Spain, es­pe­cial­ly at a time like this."