Kali­fa Clyne

The Min­istry of Gen­der Af­fairs is lead­ing the ef­forts to en­sure "sus­tain­able sup­port and pro­vi­sion" for T&T and the Caribbean's first sex­tu­plets, says line min­is­ter Mar­lene Coudray.She said so yes­ter­day while speak­ing at a brunch and award cer­e­mo­ny to com­mem­o­rate In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, Ma­coya.

"Our fam­i­ly ser­vices have vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly and we have been ap­proach­ing dif­fer­ent agen­cies as well as min­istries for sup­port," Coudray said. How­ev­er, she said she could not give specifics as to what kind of help would be giv­en.Coudray al­so pledged Gov­ern­ment's fur­ther sup­port to NGOs to fight vi­o­lence against women and chil­dren."We have a project to be launched soon with Unit­ed Na­tions women to train key per­sons, such as po­lice­men, to deal with women," Coudray said.

She said when­ev­er women went to re­port abuse to the po­lice, they were not treat­ed se­ri­ous­ly."An­oth­er hot­line is be­ing de­vel­oped so peo­ple can have more ac­cess to help," she said.At yes­ter­day's award cer­e­mo­ny, 11 NGOs, in­clud­ing shel­ters and halfway hous­es, re­ceived awards."The re­cip­i­ents of these awards pro­vid­ed a place of shel­ter for women and girls in abu­sive sit­u­a­tions," Coudray said.

"Gov­ern­ment can­not al­low such ex­tra­or­di­nary work to go un­recog­nised."She said the Gov­ern­ment was com­mit­ted to the erad­i­ca­tion of vi­o­lence against women and girls but could not do it alone."We need every one of you, whether or­gan­i­sa­tions or in­di­vid­u­als to play your part. End­ing vi­o­lence is not an op­tion but a pri­or­i­ty to us all."She said T&T had a ma­jor prob­lem with young girls get­ting preg­nant, then be­ing aban­doned by the fa­thers of their chil­dren.

"Fa­thers aban­don these girls, refuse to main­tain the chil­dren and then fam­i­lies have to re­sort to the le­gal sys­tem to get sup­port. Some of these girls choose to aban­don school and their ed­u­ca­tion," she said.Coudray said the so­ci­ety had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to change this cy­cle. "These men im­preg­nate mi­nors. This is a crime and it is abuse. Where is the re­sponse of the au­thor­i­ties?

"We must take the lead and make these men re­spon­si­ble for their ac­tions."She said the min­istry had sub­mit­ted pro­pos­als on ear­ly mar­riage to the Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs.