RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Two broth­ers who lost their fa­ther, their home and al­most a year of school­ing are back in the class­room this week, af­ter good Samar­i­tans and two gov­ern­ment min­is­ters gave them a chance to get their ed­u­ca­tion back on track.

The boys, ages 12 and eight, whose iden­ti­ties are be­ing with­held be­cause of the sen­si­tiv­i­ty of the is­sue, walked in­to the school­yard at Iere Vil­lage Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School smil­ing and hap­py to be among their peers again— dressed in new uni­forms, car­ry­ing new school­bags and look­ing for­ward to a fresh start.

For their grand aunt, Ri­ta Chanka, see­ing the boys in their uni­forms was an emo­tion­al mo­ment.

“I feel proud. They have been with me since their home burnt down and all I want for them is to get their ed­u­ca­tion,” Chanka said.

The broth­ers had been out of school since their fam­i­ly’s an­nex was de­stroyed by fire on No­vem­ber 25, 2025.

Their fa­ther, Dilip Deo, had died from a heart at­tack on April 2, 2024, leav­ing their moth­er Rose Marie Seenath to raise her chil­dren.

Af­ter the fire, Seenath said they moved be­tween rel­a­tives be­fore even­tu­al­ly set­tling at Seenath’s moth­er’s home in Princes Town.

In the midst of try­ing to find some­where for her fam­i­ly to live, she said the boys’ school­ing fell through the cracks.

The boys tried to keep learn­ing at home with text­books and work­books, with Chanka help­ing them with read­ing and math­e­mat­ics.

But Chanka feared they were miss­ing out on more than lessons.

The boys loved sports, par­tic­u­lar­ly crick­et, and she want­ed them to have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to de­vel­op their tal­ents and spend time around oth­er chil­dren.

Af­ter Guardian Me­dia ex­clu­sive­ly high­light­ed their plight, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Van­dana Mo­hit quick­ly mo­bilised a team to as­sist the fam­i­ly and the boys were trans­ferred to Iere Vil­lage Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, the next week.

Ted­dy Mo­hammed of Mo­hammed Book­store in Gulf View pro­vid­ed the boys with their uni­forms, shoes, socks, book­bags and lunch­bags.

The ASH­NAD Foun­da­tion, along with good Samar­i­tans in Trinidad and To­ba­go and abroad, al­so pro­vid­ed fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance.

A for­mer stu­dent of the Col­lege of Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Ap­plied Arts of Trinidad and To­ba­go has agreed to as­sist the boys with school sup­plies as they progress through school.

Through the Dar­ren Gan­ga Foun­da­tion, the broth­ers will al­so get an op­por­tu­ni­ty to play crick­et.

For the boys, who have spent months at home, the chance to re­turn to school and play crick­et has brought back some­thing they had been miss­ing—the sim­ple joy of be­ing chil­dren.

The old­er boy said he missed play­ing with his friends and was look­ing for­ward to be­ing back around them.

His younger broth­er, who had reached Stan­dard One be­fore leav­ing school, dreams of be­com­ing a mar­ket ven­dor and an agron­o­mist. Prin­ci­pal Ephraim Ramkissoon said the school was ready to do its part.

Their moth­er Rose Marie Seenath said she was grate­ful to every­one who had helped her chil­dren.

“I will do my best to make sure they get a sound ed­u­ca­tion,” Seenath vowed.

Chanka, who had watched the boys strug­gle through the past year, said see­ing them walk in­to school was proof that the world still has car­ing and lov­ing peo­ple.