Kristy Ram­nar­ine

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Shi­han Han­i­fah Mar­va John-Lo­gan wants to stop crime and vi­o­lence in En­ter­prise. The so­cial work­er, me­di­a­tor, youth and com­mu­ni­ty ad­vo­cate, mar­tial arts prac­ti­tion­er and so­cial change agent said the on­ly way to do so is to get in­to the bel­ly of the beast.

“We walk the street, we go on the blocks, we go in­to the schools, we talk to the prin­ci­pals, we talk to those most af­fect­ed by crime to come up with the so­lu­tions,”she said.

“We have seen a change, and the da­ta will sug­gest from Crime and Prob­lem Analy­sis (CA­PA) that from 2012, 2016 there has been a de­crease in crime. More im­por­tant­ly, a lot of school dropouts in Ch­agua­nas North, Ch­agua­nas South, Cunu­pia High, En­ter­prise Gov­ern­ment, Ra­goo­nanan, Lendor Hin­du, and Jern­ing­ham were less, and the da­ta is there to show.

“It shows that if you have a plan, and you know how to ex­e­cute it well, and you are per­sis­tent, and you look at sus­tain­abil­i­ty, things will change, but it’s in­cre­men­tal changes you are look­ing at.”

Liv­ing up to its name, Redi­rect­ing Youths to Unite, the foun­da­tion utilis­es the hy­brid and in­no­v­a­tive Sports + (Plus) Mod­el. Its “holis­tic de­vel­op­ment” ap­proach pro­vides valu­able life skills and per­son­al de­vel­op­ment to its com­mu­ni­ty.

“Yes, we do mar­tial arts, but we al­so do net­ball, dance, and dra­ma to get them in­ter­est­ed,” she said. “The foun­da­tion has been very im­pact­ful. Some­times they say it is very hard to mea­sure im­pact be­cause life chang­ing is not a tan­gi­ble thing like a flower vase, but we learnt very ear­ly about col­lab­o­ra­tion and not com­pe­ti­tion.”

Ryu Dan has im­ple­ment­ed projects along­side the US Em­bassy, the Unit­ed States Agency for In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment (US­AID), Democ­ra­cy In­ter­na­tion­al, the Unit­ed Na­tions De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP), and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Through col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts, John-Lo­gan trav­elled to Vi­en­na, Aus­tria, where she pre­sent­ed the mod­el used by the foun­da­tion. “There, they use a mod­el called Cre­at­ing Cham­pi­ons us­ing sports. This mod­el can ap­ply to any part of the world, es­pe­cial­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go in the so-called ‘hot spots’,” she said.

“With­in those hot spots, there are tal­ent­ed hu­man be­ings just like us; if it is not sports, they can use mu­sic, they could use art, they could use dra­ma. You must put struc­ture in place, and you must have a strate­gic plan, a vi­sion and mis­sion, and short-term, long-term and medi­um goals.

“Most im­por­tant, you must have peo­ple to come on board; cor­po­rate Trinidad, the stake­hold­ers with­in the com­mu­ni­ty must buy-in to what they want.”

Al­so known as Sis­ter Han­i­fah, John-Lo­gan cred­its the suc­cess of the foun­da­tion to com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

The triple na­tion­al award win­ner co-found­ed the Non-Gov­ern­ment Or­gan­i­sa­tion back in 2012.

“I was a mem­ber of a karate school with my sons and some col­leagues,” she said. “Our mar­tial arts in­struc­tor Shi­han Car­lyle Thorne died in 2012, and it left a void in the com­mu­ni­ty of En­ter­prise. A group of us got to­geth­er and start­ed do­jo. The do­jo was no or­di­nary mar­tial arts group. It mor­phed in­to a foun­da­tion on a tra­jec­to­ry to en­hance the lives of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in En­ter­prise.

“We said we want­ed to do some­thing dif­fer­ent, we want­ed to cre­ate a space where young peo­ple can come to­geth­er to fight against crime and vi­o­lence and fos­ter peace and uni­ty,” said John-Lo­gan.

“Yes, we want to use mar­tial arts as the ve­hi­cle for change, but very ear­ly we want­ed it to be dif­fer­ent, we want­ed it to be a so­cial in­ter­ven­tion or­gan­i­sa­tion and that’s why the Em­pow­er­ment Foun­da­tion was added on.”

John-Lo­gan said the Ryu Dan Em­pow­er­ment Foun­da­tion is ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing the so­cial, ed­u­ca­tion­al and phys­i­cal de­vel­op­ment of all and is guid­ed by its sev­en pil­lars of com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment.

Shi­han John-Lo­gan said com­mu­ni­ca­tion was key.

“When we form in­ter­ven­tions, whether it is short, medi­um or long term, we al­ways en­gage the com­mu­ni­ty,” she added. “We col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers like the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, RAMPS Lo­gis­tics and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions, the Ryan Dan Em­pow­er­ment Foun­da­tion.”

On Re­pub­lic Day 2023, John-Lo­gan was award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold) for so­cial work and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice at the na­tion­al awards cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House in St Ann’s.

On Sep­tem­ber 21, 2023, she re­ceived the Youth Men­tor award, while the Ryu Dan Youth Em­pow­er­ment Foun­da­tion won the Mod­el Youth De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme award at the Na­tion­al Youth Awards at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port-of-Spain.

“A week be­fore I re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold), I re­ceived a let­ter say­ing I was nom­i­nat­ed,” she said. “You can’t ex­plain how you feel be­cause when you’re in the work of so­cial im­pact, you don’t look for awards; the award is the life that you change. But it is nice to be recog­nised by your coun­try and col­leagues in do­ing the work.”

As John-Lo­gan con­tin­ues to work in the En­ter­prise com­mu­ni­ty, she ad­vis­es women to know who you are.

“Know your lim­i­ta­tions, but know that lim­i­ta­tions are there to be bro­ken,” she said. “Don’t be afraid of ‘FEAR’; F in that fear is just for you to feel. The E in that fear, make sure you ed­u­cate your­self in what you want to do. That A, as­sert your­self, and that R, run that race un­til you reach your fin­ish line.”