Beetham resident Michelle Nichols has lost four male family members to crime; her husband, two brothers and her son.
This experience lead her to join a Ministry of Education retreat to Toco yesterday so that she could learn how to help her grandsons, aged 14 and six respectively avoid such a grim fate.
“The one that really touch me the most was my son,” said Nichols outside the Ministry of Education Tower in Port- of- Spain. She added: “My brother and somebody else on phase four, (we live) on phase three, (they) get away. “ I am the one who supports him through everything and every little activity.”
She was one of 40 parents of students from communities in Laventille and environs that were taken on the retreat by the Ministry of Education to discuss various traumatic experiences which had affected them.
The ministry started the support programme as they recognised the challenges parents in those areas faced.
“By meeting people and hearing different stories that helps me a lot. Meeting people alone that helps me a lot,’’ said Nichols
The ministry started the support programme as they recognised the challenges parents in those areas faced.
“What we are doing today we’re really supporting, giving an avenue to support our parents who have gone through some sort of trauma or loss. So that they will be able to better support students through the education system,” said Nathalie Robinson-Arnold, school social work specialist.
“They will be going to Toco for a retreat today, we have a facility to deal with trauma, to have that discussion. A relaxing atmosphere as well as an educational one and most importantly a supportive one so that we could continue to support our parents through this journey,” Robinson-Arnold said.
Many of the parents involved in the trip had either lost children to violence or had seen the effects of violence in their community.
“A parent who lost a child go through a series of stages of grief and sometimes coming out of that is really difficult. Sometimes even dealing and coping with their other children is very challenging,” she said, explaining it was especially important for school social workers to provide support to these families.
“It’s really a critical role that a school social worker plays in supporting our parents so that they can overcome that challenge so that they can continue to support their children in the education system and our nation’s children on a whole,” said Robinson-Arnold.
Carlos Taylor, another parent on the trip, was the one of the few fathers who took part in the programme. He said this spoke volumes as he had heard far too many stories of single mom households.
He said he took part to help his son through secondary school in East Port- of- Spain.
“There is a lot of people with similar issues to yours, and you find now what they took to change their way of life and what you can take away from that to improve yours also,” said Taylor.