The Shel­ter (A safe house for sur­vivors of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence) re­cent­ly signed an MOU with the WAND Foun­da­tion, for the do­na­tion of $800,000 to­wards the con­struc­tion of a new wing—called “The Wand Wing”—on the premis­es of The Shel­ter’s safe house in Trinidad.  

The MOU was signed on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2023.

The agree­ment be­tween the two reg­is­tered char­i­ta­ble non-prof­it or­ga­ni­za­tions will en­sure that The Shel­ter will be able to dou­ble its cur­rent in­take, pro­vid­ing a safe haven for more women and chil­dren flee­ing do­mes­tic abuse.  The new dor­mi­to­ry wing will en­sure four ad­di­tion­al bed­rooms with en-suite baths for res­i­dents.

The agree­ment was signed by Col­in Mitchell, Chair­man of The Shel­ter and Aman­da Jar­dine, Pres­i­dent of WAND, a char­i­ta­ble or­ga­ni­za­tion of women who of­fer as­sis­tance to dis­ad­van­taged chil­dren and adults through part­ner­ships with com­mu­ni­ties, pri­vate in­sti­tu­tions and gov­ern­ment.

“We are so grate­ful for this gen­er­ous, his­toric com­mit­ment by WAND,” Mitchell said.  “The de­mand for as­sis­tance keeps ris­ing na­tion­wide, and this gift will en­sure that we are able to pro­vide safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty on the road to re­cov­ery for more women and chil­dren.”

The Shel­ter chair­man added: “But the to­tal cost of the build­ing is $1.6 mil­lion so we are seek­ing to meet this mark through our con­tin­ued fundrais­ing ef­forts.”

At the sign­ing, Mitchell ex­pressed his pro­found grat­i­tude to the WAND Foun­da­tion for their gen­er­ous com­mit­ment and spoke of the on­go­ing need for funds to en­sure the char­i­ty con­tin­ues to pro­vide shel­ter to a grow­ing need for as­sis­tance by sur­vivors.

Found­ed in 1987 by Di­ana Ma­habir-Wy­att, The Shel­ter pro­vides hous­ing, food, coun­selling, med­ical aid as well as ed­u­ca­tion­al sup­port for res­i­dents at its safe house.  The char­i­ty gains most of its fund­ing from donors and fundrais­ing events like the Shel­ter’s Wine and Cheese Evening, which will take place this year at the Hy­att Ho­tel, Port of Spain on Sat­ur­day 21st Oc­to­ber.

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To learn more about the work of The Shel­ter, vis­it https://trinidad­shel­ter.com