The Gen­der Based Vi­o­lence Unit (GB­VU) of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has re­ceived an­oth­er im­por­tant boost to its op­er­a­tions with a do­na­tion of elec­tron­ic items from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the First Cit­i­zens’ Ad­vance­ment of Women (AOW) Com­mit­tee.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from the TTMA ex­plains this lat­est do­na­tion comes as the fi­nal tranche of in­fra­struc­tur­al items re­quired to out­fit two of the units lo­cat­ed at the San­gre Grande and Rox­bor­ough sta­tions re­spec­tive­ly.  Pre­vi­ous do­na­tions were made by PriceS­mart, V.F. Pack­ag­ing Lim­it­ed, Ad­vance Foam Lim­it­ed and TTMA.

“To date, through the ef­forts of the TTMA and its mem­bers an es­ti­mat­ed $150,000 in goods has been do­nat­ed to the TTPS for these Units,” stat­ed Tri­cia Coos­al, TTMA Pres­i­dent.

“TTMA thanks First Cit­i­zens for its do­na­tion to com­plete the out­fit­ting of these two Units. We al­so thank all our mem­bers who do­nat­ed items such as fur­ni­ture and ap­pli­ances in as part of a com­mit­ment to get these lo­ca­tions ful­ly func­tion­al to serve the pub­lic,” she said.

The TTMA pres­i­dent added: “TTMA is proud to be a part of this pub­lic-pri­vate ini­tia­tive which seeks to pro­tect the vul­ner­a­ble in our so­ci­ety. Part­ner­ships such as these are in­stru­men­tal in the fight against gen­der-based vi­o­lence, as it pro­vides an av­enue and safe space for vic­tims to re­ceive sup­port, coun­selling and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion.”

Woman Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice (Ag.), Claire Guy-Al­leyne, says the GB­VU takes its man­date se­ri­ous­ly.

“The GB­VU com­pris­es of high­ly trained po­lice of­fi­cers who at­tend to the needs of these spe­cial vic­tims. All re­ports of the SB­VU are treat­ed with ur­gency, con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and the sen­si­tiv­i­ty re­quired,” she said.

The GB­VU boss added: “Gen­der Based Vi­o­lence is every­one’s busi­ness and we each play an im­por­tant role in erad­i­cat­ing this ug­ly scourge in so­ci­ety. If you see some­thing, say some­thing, do some­thing.”

The TTMA pres­i­dent echoed the chal­lenge is­sued by Ag W/Supt Guy-Al­leyne:

“TTMA and its mem­bers are do­ing some­thing—we are do­ing our part to en­sure these units are func­tion­al. I urge all cit­i­zens to heed the call of Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Guy-Al­leyne and be your fel­low­man’s keep­er.”

The Gen­der Based Vi­o­lence Unit was formed in Jan­u­ary 2020 as part of the TTPS’ man­date to end gen­der-based vi­o­lence.  This unit forms part of the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment with­in the TTPS, which com­pris­es the GB­VU, Child Pro­tec­tion Unit and the Sex­u­al Of­fens­es Unit.