Rhondor Dowlat-Rostant
Scores of grieving relatives and friends gathered at the Masjid-Ul-Furqan in Laventille noon yesterday for the funeral Sherian Huggins, 29, the mother of four who was chopped to death by her former husband Dan Kelly, Laventille, home on Tuesday.
Officiating at the service was Imam Abdul Haqq who told the mourners they should look out for the vulnerable people around them.
“In this community, we have to take care of women and children. We cannot allow this to continue. We make the community. We cannot rely on the outside alone to help. We live in a community where it is easy for the young men to choose a particular path, because of this and that. Not easy being a mother,” he said.
Haqq shared his own traumatic experiences when his mother was killed and his brother died. He said he is yet to recover although both deaths occurred when he was young and he is now almost 36 years old.
He said: “Teach these youths the right thing. Be there for them, whether it be financially, but most important psychologically and emotionally. Talk to them fellas and them.”
Haqq said the negative stigma attached to the Laventille community has to be broken. He also urged residents to end domestic abuse.
“Whenever we see instances of domestic abuse we say that is man and woman thing, that is husband and wife thing. We have to stop that. We have to know if people hitting their wife, or girls, or friends, we have to take a serious stance and deal with that because one thing does always lead to one another,” he said
“It ain’t have no bigger man or badder man when it comes to the sisters. For too long they have been abused, whether physically or mentally, and it’s taking a toll on them,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that we do not show each other enough compassion. We like to picong one another ‘cause that is how we grow. We have to learn to take talk and have to learn to be strong but very often you will see we have a barrier, a line we reach to and need to stop.”
“We continue and continue till people cross their threshold and when they snap we shocked. So if you are seeing someone going through something, stop gossiping and spreading rumours and doing things that won’t help the situation. Hold him and reason with them. Even if they don’t want to tell us their story or problem.
“Show them you are there, tell them go to the Lord, rather than being not compassionate, seeing somebody going in a downward spiral, making jokes and stamping on them. But when we going through things like this, people does say we have to be strong, take this and that. But not everyone have the same strength. Sometimes a man might look physically strong, but his mind is not as strong and he can’t take all the talk and will lash out, so be mindful of one another.”