“Our in­ten­tion is to re­duce child abuse by work­ing in part­ner­ship with agen­cies and cit­i­zens at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el…”

That promise by Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy MP, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs (GCA), at the launch of the ‘In the Know’ Se­ries at the SWA­HA Hin­du Col­lege, San­gre Grande, on Wednes­day 3 April 2024.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter, the In the Know Se­ries is a GCA ini­tia­tive, de­signed to im­prove the child pro­tec­tion and child abuse pre­ven­tion ca­pac­i­ties of com­mu­ni­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Par­ents, ed­u­ca­tors, and care­givers will ben­e­fit from the in­sight­ful in­for­ma­tion about the var­i­ous is­sues af­fect­ing chil­dren, as well as guid­ance on how those is­sues can be ad­dressed, and thus pre­vent abuse from oc­cur­ring,” Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy not­ed in her re­marks at the launch of the pro­gramme, ear­li­er to­day.

The GCA Di­vi­sion ex­plains that over the 10 weeks of the pro­gramme’s im­ple­men­ta­tion, five com­mu­ni­ties in Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la will have four ses­sions each—two for par­ents and two chil­dren. 

Ayanna Webster-Roy MP, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) with responsibility for Gender and Child Affairs (GCA) (third from right), celebrates with Cumuto/Manzanilla MP, Dr. Rai Ragbir (third form left), on the successful launch of the ‘In the Know’ Series at SWAHA Hindu College, Sangre Grande, on Wednesday 3 April 2024. Also at the launch were, L to R – Sharla Dass-Hassanali, Project Support Officer, GCA; Rawlinson Agard, Chairman of the Board of Management of the Children’s Authority; Kurt Meyer, Permanent Secretary, OPM-GCA; and Irma Bailey-Reyes, Coordinator, Child Affairs Division, GCA. [Image courtesy Office of the Prime Minister]

Dur­ing those ses­sions, crit­i­cal in­for­ma­tion will be shared with par­tic­i­pants to in­crease aware­ness on child abuse, as well as high­light the ma­jor stake­hold­ers in­volved in the child pro­tec­tion sys­tem.

“In this way, par­tic­i­pants can recog­nise and re­port child abuse, seek help, and be agents of change with­in their com­mu­ni­ties,” the GCA Di­vi­sion says.

There is ab­solute­ly no ex­cuse for any form of child abuse,”  Min­ster Web­ster-Roy as­serts, not­ing that the Se­ries is use­ful for pre­ven­tion and ear­ly de­tec­tion of child abuse.

The Of­fice of the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la worked close­ly with the GCA Di­vi­sion to help de­sign the In the Know Se­ries for the tar­get com­mu­ni­ties in the con­stituen­cy.

Par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dr. Rai Rag­bir urged his con­stituents to make full use of the up­com­ing ses­sions:

“It is every­one’s du­ty to do every­thing in their pow­er to pro­tect our chil­dren from preda­tors, he stat­ed.

His call was echoed by Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty Chair­man, Rawl­in­son Agard, who en­dorsed the essence of the In the Know Se­ries by urg­ing every­one present at to­day’s launch to ‘speak up about child abuse and in­crease their own aware­ness about how to pre­vent it.