The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the First Cit­i­zens’ Ad­vance­ment of Women (AOW) Com­mit­tee do­nat­ed elec­tron­ic items to the Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence Unit (GB­VU) of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

This comes as the fi­nal tranche of in­fra­struc­tur­al items re­quired to out­fit two of the units lo­cat­ed at the San­gre Grande and Rox­bor­ough sta­tions re­spec­tive­ly, fol­low­ing pre­vi­ous do­na­tions from PriceS­mart, VF Pack­ag­ing Ltd, Ad­vance Foam Ltd and TTMA.

TTMA pres­i­dent Tri­cia Coos­al stat­ed:

“TTMA thanks First Cit­i­zens for its do­na­tion to com­plete the out­fit­ting of these two Units.

“We al­so thank all our mem­bers who do­nat­ed items such as fur­ni­ture and ap­pli­ances in as part of a com­mit­ment to get these lo­ca­tions ful­ly func­tion­al to serve the pub­lic. To date, through the ef­forts of the TTMA and its mem­bers an es­ti­mat­ed $250,000 in goods has been do­nat­ed to the TTPS for these Units.

“TTMA is proud to be a part of this pub­lic-pri­vate ini­tia­tive which seeks to pro­tect the vul­ner­a­ble in our so­ci­ety.

“Part­ner­ships such as these are in­stru­men­tal in the fight against gen­der based vi­o­lence, as it pro­vides an av­enue and safe space for vic­tims to re­ceive sup­port, coun­selling and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion,” Coos­al stat­ed.

The Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence Unit was formed in Jan­u­ary 2020 as part of the TTPS’ man­date to end gen­der based vi­o­lence. This unit forms part of the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment with­in the TTPS. This unit en­com­pass­es the GB­VU, Child Pro­tec­tion Unit and the Sex­u­al Of­fens­es Unit.

Woman Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Po­lice (Ag), Claire Guy-Al­leyne com­ment­ed, “The GB­VU com­pris­es of high­ly trained po­lice of­fi­cers who at­tend to the needs of these spe­cial vic­tims. All re­ports of the GB­VU is treat­ed with ur­gency, con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and the sen­si­tiv­i­ty it re­quires.”

She fur­ther added, “Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence is every­one’s busi­ness and we each play an im­por­tant role in erad­i­cat­ing this ug­ly scourge in so­ci­ety. If you see some­thing, say some­thing, do some­thing.”