The Shel­ter and the Cross­roads Or­gan­i­sa­tion will host a joint silent art auc­tion to­mor­row at the Art So­ci­ety, Fed­er­a­tion Park, Port-of-Spain. Bid­ding opens at 4 pm and clos­es at 8 pm sharp and Linx and cred­it card fa­cil­i­ties will be avail­able on site. The Shel­ter was es­tab­lished in 1987 by a group of in­ter­est­ed peo­ple in a house pro­vid­ed by the gov­ern­ment. For­mer­ly the Saa­man Shel­ter for Bat­tered Women and Chil­dren, it of­fers a se­cure en­vi­ron­ment, coun­selling and sup­port ser­vices for vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence and their chil­dren. It was one of the first safe hous­es set up in the Caribbean.

The Cross­roads Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TCO) was reg­is­tered in 2012 by a group of cit­i­zens who had a com­mon de­sire to help the less for­tu­nate. TCO's mis­sion is "to make a pos­i­tive im­pact on the lives of those in need through di­rect aid or by act­ing as a con­duit to oth­er lo­cal, re­gion­al or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion which may be bet­ter able to as­sist." The Shel­ter will use the funds de­rived from the auc­tion for an out­reach-coun­selling pro­gramme for vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence who are not yet ready to en­ter the fa­cil­i­ty. The pro­gramme al­so in­cludes per­pe­tra­tors of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

TCO will use the pro­ceeds for the Chi Chi Project Phase I, its first project, named af­ter Rachael "Chi-Chi" Wil­son-Blanc, who lost a bat­tle with can­cer in 2008. TCO will buy and do­nate equip­ment re­quired for a neona­tal re­sus­ci­ta­tion provider course train­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the staff in NICU and labour ward in the Neona­tal De­part­ment of the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (POS­GH). Dr Jen­nifer De­lam­ore, neona­tal con­sul­tant at the POS­GH and a cer­ti­fied NRP in­struc­tor, has vol­un­teered to train the staff. When this course was in­tro­duced to the Mt Hope Women's Hos­pi­tal the peri­na­tal mor­tal­i­ty rate was re­duced by 25 per cent.

For ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion about the auc­tion, con­tact Sher­ron Har­ford at sher­ron@the­cross­road­sorg.com, or 355-7781, or Eliz­a­beth Tal­ma-Sankar at ad­min@trinidad­shel­ter.com, or 628-1116.