Sascha Wil­son

The Cou­va Tabaquite Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (CT­TRC) has teamed with the So­cial­ly Dis­placed Restora­tion Cen­tre (SDRC) to help the so­cial­ly dis­placed peo­ple in Cou­va.

Ex­press­ing con­cern over the grow­ing num­ber of dis­placed peo­ple in the re­gion, CT­TRC’s chair­man Hen­ry Awong pon­dered whether the cur­rent eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion would in­crease the street dweller pop­u­la­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­cent sur­vey con­duct­ed by SDRC, Awong said there were about 30 so­cial­ly dis­placed per­sons in Cou­va Prop­er.

Ac­cord­ing to the SDRC’s re­port, “Cou­va Prop­er,” com­pris­es of Cou­va Main Road on­to South­ern Main Road and the side streets (La Croix Street, Grant Street, Bryce Street, Noel Street and Church Street to the south, and Karamdeen Street, Fire Sta­tion Road, Ex­change Lots.

Awong said the cor­po­ra­tion is al­so faced with the predica­ment of hav­ing so­cial­ly dis­placed peo­ple re­sid­ing in pub­lic spaces such as the pavil­ions at recre­ation grounds and re­cent­ly a woman has tak­en lodg­ing at the Wa­ter­loo Cre­ma­tion Site.

Through the So­cial and Com­mu­ni­ty Out­reach and Gen­der Equal­i­ty Com­mit­tee, he said the cor­po­ra­tion has en­gaged in var­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties to re­duce and or elim­i­nate the pres­ence of so­cial­ly dis­placed per­sons in their re­gion.

While their goal is to even­tu­al­ly have a space to house and re­ha­bil­i­tate these peo­ple, he said much is need­ed to make this a re­al­i­ty. “Not on­ly is a phys­i­cal space nec­es­sary but al­so the fi­nan­cial and hu­man re­sources to en­sure the ob­jec­tives to achieve the goal is vi­able. Hence, when we were ap­proached by the SDRC to join forces and ex­per­tise we will­ing­ly oblig­ed as the work can­not be done by our­selves.”

From this part­ner­ship, he said was born a Care Day once a month at the In­shan Ali Prom­e­nade.

“Coun­cil has made the prom­e­nade and its fa­cil­i­ties avail­able to the SDRC to en­sure an eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble lo­ca­tion is grant­ed,” Awong said.

Launched last month, he said once a month the so­cial­ly dis­placed would be groomed and show­ered, giv­en a hot meal, re­ceive a ba­sic med­ical ex­am­i­na­tion and a hy­giene pack­age.

“This Care Day will con­tin­ue for a few months un­til a more def­i­nite plan can be con­cep­tu­alised. CT­TRC com­mends the SDRC for this ini­tia­tive and is proud to be a part­ner.”

Awong said the cor­po­ra­tion has al­so sought as­sis­tance and guid­ance in deal­ing with this sen­si­tive is­sue from the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices (Cou­va Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, So­cial Dis­place­ment Unit) and the Cou­va Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty.

“Our plan as a coun­cil is to al­so en­gage cor­po­rate T&T to as­sist with the ac­qui­si­tion of a build­ing/land, not on­ly to house the un­for­tu­nate but to be able to make them bet­ter per­sons. These per­sons when they are ready to leave the fa­cil­i­ty must be con­fi­dent that they are able to in­te­grate suc­cess­ful­ly in­to so­ci­ety. It is our de­sire to have this fa­cil­i­ty be self-suf­fi­cient, hence, land space is not on­ly re­quired for the build­ing but al­so land space for the fa­cil­i­ty to plant and grow its own food items. It’s al­so our de­sire to have these per­sons re­ceived the nec­es­sary med­ical at­ten­tion where and when need­ed.”

With the ad­vent of COVID-19 and even pre COVID, he said many per­sons have lost their jobs or are now sub­ject­ed to dwin­dled in­comes. “We as a Coun­cil are quite con­cern of the domi­no ef­fect this will have on our burgess­es. Many fam­i­lies have lost their sole source of in­come, hence this has many neg­a­tive ef­fects on fam­i­ly life. Our fear is, some of these per­sons would end up on the streets of our re­gion. Dai­ly, coun­cil­lors re­ceive pleas of help for ba­sic food items etc.” Awong said the cor­po­ra­tion will al­so con­tin­ue to reach out for as­sis­tance from the var­i­ous NGOs, gov­ern­ment in­sti­tu­tions and the cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ty for as­sis­tance.

On its Face­book page, SDRC said they as­sist­ed 25 home­less peo­ple with a show­er, food, clothes, groom­ing, med­ical care, hy­giene packs and snack packs on their Care Day on March 28.

While they strive to pro­vide meals to dis­placed per­sons every week, the SDRC’s long term ob­jec­tive is to pro­vide an overnight shel­ter from 6 pm to 9 am, two meals per day and a sup­port sys­tem in­clud­ing coun­selling, med­ical and fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance as well as le­gal ad­vice.