Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la and Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Shiv­an­na Sam, has as­sured her con­stituents she will work to ease the bur­dens faced by rur­al com­mu­ni­ties.

Speak­ing at the Vish­wanath Hin­du So­cial & Cul­tur­al Or­gan­i­sa­tion Inc Vic­to­ry Cel­e­bra­tion and Her­itage Month event at Vish­wanath Mandir in San­gre Chiq­ui­to, Sam said she un­der­stood the strug­gles be­cause she had ex­pe­ri­enced them her­self.

“I have been through this. I know what it is like to walk through un­kept and un­der­de­vel­oped roads in in­clement weath­er at 3am to catch a maxi to get to school be­cause ve­hi­cles refuse to tra­verse the road,” she said.

“I know what it is like to not have a com­put­er and in­ter­net. Hav­ing to strug­gle to do home­work be­cause of no elec­tric­i­ty on most nights, and be­ing forced to study un­der can­dle­lights.”

Sam said such chal­lenges build dis­ci­pline.

“This is dif­fi­cult but it gives one a cer­tain dis­ci­pline. A dis­ci­pline that you car­ry out through­out your life. It teach­es you to al­ways be hum­ble and car­ing. It teach­es you a cer­tain lev­el of hu­mil­i­ty and ap­pre­ci­a­tion,” she said.

She said she was for­tu­nate to grow up in a fam­i­ly that in­stilled in her those val­ues, which she car­ries in­to her pub­lic ser­vice.

Sam said she knew there were many par­ents in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties still mak­ing sac­ri­fices to en­sure their chil­dren had a bet­ter life and an ed­u­ca­tion be­cause they un­der­stood its im­por­tance.

She pledged to work for those fam­i­lies by fo­cus­ing on in­fra­struc­ture and de­vel­op­ment.

“I felt hap­py to be part of this fam­i­ly, to be ho­n­oured and recog­nised in this spir­i­tu­al space. It is not just a per­son­al bless­ing, but a pow­er­ful re­minder of the jour­ney we have made to­geth­er as one com­mu­ni­ty, and the strength that lies in one com­mu­ni­ty. It is your hope, your voice, and your dreams that I car­ry with me in Par­lia­ment.”

Sam said she would serve her con­stituents and Trinidad and To­ba­go with in­tegri­ty, trans­paren­cy, and an un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to progress.