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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

MP to communities: Look out for all children

by

20140418

Oropouche West MP Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine is urg­ing cit­i­zens to look out for the chil­dren in their com­mu­ni­ties as a means of pre­vent­ing and stop­ping child abuse.She was speak­ing to the me­dia at an East­er treat for chil­dren of the Haven for Hope Chil­dren's Home, Pluck Road,San Fran­cique, Pe­nal."We have to go back to the days where it re­al­ly took a vil­lage to raise a child.That means per­sons not on­ly have to look af­ter their own chil­dren but all the chil­dren in their com­mu­ni­ty," said Roop­nar­ine.She added that the high num­ber of in­ci­dents point­ed to a lack of morals and ethics by some cit­i­zens.

"It is very sad. It shows that in some cas­es, per­sons have strayed away from re­li­gion, morals and ethics," she said, "be­cause when these things hap­pen it re­al­ly shows that there is a dis­con­nect, a gap in terms of so­ci­ety." She said cit­i­zens should use the East­er week­end to re­flect and pray and do some soul-search­ing."Let us go back to re­li­gion, prin­ci­ples and have some moral­i­ty in our so­ci­ety," she added. Roop­nar­ine urged cit­i­zens to re­port all in­stances of abuse to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties, adding: "On­ly if the au­thor­i­ties know about abuse then they can do some­thing about it."

Her vis­it to the home comes eight days af­ter a 14-year-old boy died while play­ing with a friend at the St Michael's School, Diego Mar­tin.The child, Bran­don Har­g­reaves, was res­cued from a dog ken­nel in 2012. Min­is­ter of Youth, Gen­der and Child De­vel­op­ment Clifton De Coteau, who at­tend­ed the boy's fu­ner­al on Wednes­day, said a re­port on the in­ci­dent would be ready "with­in two weeks." She said the vis­it was aimed at bring­ing joy to the lives of the chil­dren in the home, adding: "We had lots of ac­tiv­i­ties and presents for the chil­dren."Roop­nar­ine, who is al­so Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture, told re­porters her min­istry was car­ry­ing out works on two of the three land­slips in Pluck Road. She said the re­pairs were cost­ing the gov­ern­ment ap­prox­i­mate­ly $20 mil­lion.She said land­slips were more com­mon in south Trinidad where there is "a cer­tain un­sta­ble soil type."


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