Ryan Ba­choo

Child­Line Trinidad and To­ba­go has made an ap­peal to all young peo­ple who are in need of sup­port to reach out to them. Their call comes on In­ter­na­tion­al Child Helpline Day which cel­e­brates the ef­forts of work­ers who en­sure that chil­dren and youth in need are lis­tened to and as­sist­ed in a time­ly man­ner.

If you would like to con­tact Child­Line Trinidad and To­ba­go for sup­port, these are the ways you can:

24/7 Toll-free Helpline: 800-4321 or 131

24/7 What­sApp: +1 (868)-760-4471

Web­sites: child­linett.org and learn.child­linett.org

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from Child­Line Trinidad and To­ba­go on Tues­day morn­ing, in 2022, 45% of all the calls, we­bchat and What­sApp mes­sages re­ceived by Child­Line’s helpline were re­lat­ed to stress, de­pres­sion, anx­i­ety, self-harm, and sui­ci­dal ideation. "A safe space for chil­dren and youths to ex­press them­selves is need­ed more than ever," the re­lease stat­ed.

Child­Line Trinidad and To­ba­go, which was es­tab­lished in 2001, is a found­ing mem­ber of Child Helpline In­ter­na­tion­al which spans 142 coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries around the world.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said in a state­ment, "...we urge all chil­dren and youths to reach out for sup­port in times of need, no mat­ter how ‘big’ or ‘small’ you be­lieve these chal­lenges to be. We al­so call on the wider so­ci­ety, es­pe­cial­ly the cor­po­rate sec­tor, to help keep safe spaces freely avail­able to chil­dren and youths by do­nat­ing to Child­Line.

Like­wise, we en­cour­age a spir­it of vol­un­teerism among young peo­ple as this is vi­tal for the avail­abil­i­ty of men­tal health and psy­choso­cial sup­port through non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tions."