Shal­iza Has­sanali

In yet an­oth­er step to serve the vul­ner­a­ble in so­ci­ety, Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh has or­gan­ised a $40,000 wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny for a pover­ty-strick­en cou­ple.To­day at 3 pm, Joel Sandy, 25, and Rachel Brown, 22, will ex­change mar­i­tal vows at the VIP Lounge of the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, in the pres­ence of Ra­mad­hars­ingh, staff of the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment, fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends.The wed­ding, which was or­gan­ised by Ra­mad­hars­ingh's staff and paid for by cor­po­rate and in­di­vid­ual spon­sors, will be one made in heav­en for the two­some, who want­ed to tie the knot for the past eight years but could not do so be­cause of fi­nan­cial con­straints.

How­ev­er, with the in­ter­ven­tion of Ra­mad­hars­ingh, the cou­ple's wish to say "I do" will fi­nal­ly come true.Sandy will be step­ping out in a new suit, while Brown will be step­ping down the aisle in a flow­ing bridal gown cour­tesy the min­istry. The min­istry has al­so or­gan­ised the cake, dec­o­ra­tions, flow­ers, DJ, drinks, ta­bles, chairs, food for 50 guests and two wed­ding rings val­ued $2,000.Brown, who plans to dress at the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment, Aber­crom­by Street of­fice will be chauf­feur dri­ven to the re­cep­tion in a stretch lim­ou­sine, while Sandy will dress at his grand­moth­er's res­i­dence in Beetham Gar­dens.Ra­mad­hars­ingh who was asked by Brown to be her fa­ther giv­er, how­ev­er, de­clined.

Cou­ple will­honey­moon in To­ba­go

Fol­low­ing the re­cep­tion, the new­ly weds will en­joy a two-day, all ex­pens­es paid hon­ey­moon in To­ba­go.Up­on their re­turn to Trinidad, they will be pro­vid­ed with an apart­ment for three months which will be paid for un­der the min­istry's rent as­sess­ment grant.The min­istry will al­so write the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion to seek per­ma­nent shel­ter for the un­der­priv­i­leged cou­ple.To tops things off, Sandy, who has ma­son­ry skills will be­come gain­ful­ly em­ployed while Brown who nev­er grad­u­at­ed from sec­ondary school will pur­sue her ed­u­ca­tion.

Fam­i­ly case work­er Sime­on Hen­ry was drawn to the cou­ple af­ter nu­mer­ous vis­its to the min­istry's of­fice in the past year."They were try­ing to be­come re­cip­i­ents of the TT card and I saw the hard­ship in their faces."Up­on check­ing their back­ground, Hen­ry dis­cov­ered that Brown and Sandy were liv­ing in one room of an aban­doned house in Bel­mont with their three chil­dren for more than two years. The chil­dren range in ages four years to nine months.

Fol­low­ing a fam­i­ly feud over a piece of squat­ting land, the cou­ple was forced to move in­to the di­lap­i­dat­ed home.The min­istry al­so dis­cov­ered that the mon­ey Sandy made from ply­ing his friend's PH car was bare­ly keep­ing them afloat.Touched by the cou­ple's plight, Hen­ry said they fast tracked the cou­ple's TT card ap­pli­ca­tion and short­ly af­ter they start­ed re­ceiv­ing $550 month­ly."They spoke about mar­riage but did not see it pos­si­ble. That's when we de­cid­ed to help."

Ra­mad­hars­ingh said the wed­ding cost his min­istry "not a cent."Ra­mad­hars­ingh es­ti­mat­ed the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny to be val­ued $40,000.He laud­ed the ef­forts of his staff for mak­ing the cou­ple's dreams a re­al­i­ty."They lived to­geth­er for eight years and de­cid­ed they want­ed some­thing more. We are tak­ing con­crete steps to en­sure that there is sta­bil­i­sa­tion of the fam­i­ly unit."Ra­mad­hars­ingh said the mar­riage was the last stage of em­pow­er­ment for the cou­ple to live their dreams.Ra­mad­hars­ingh said there are still good peo­ple out there.Hen­ry said they were go­ing to as­sist sev­er­al vul­ner­a­ble cou­ples to get mar­ried in May, June and Ju­ly.