Rhon­dor Dowlat

Busi­ness­man Dy­on Dhan­raj, 32, of Smalls Au­to in Cunu­pia is mov­ing full speed ahead in do­ing what it takes to pro­mote an en­vi­ron­ment of pos­i­tiv­i­ty and fam­i­ly bond­ing, which he strong­ly be­lieves, is the ap­pro­pri­ate tool in the fight against crime in T&T.

Dhan­raj over the past six years has been host­ing fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed so­cial events which en­cour­age chil­dren and youth to come out in their num­bers where they get a taste of what love and care re­al­ly is and where a sim­ple trade or skill can lead you to a suc­cess­ful life.

Be­ing a role mod­el in the com­mu­ni­ty of Es­mer­al­da Road/Wel­come Road/Ra­goo­nanan Road, Dhan­raj, who is a me­chan­ic by trade over the past two decades, us­es his life ex­pe­ri­ences and chal­lenges to reach out to the youths around him.

“There are many youths go­ing astray be­cause they have no guid­ance and I have tak­en it up­on my­self as my civic du­ty and as a young per­son my­self to be that guid­ing star for them,” Dhan­raj said.

“Not just one who fits in that car en­thu­si­asts’ cat­e­go­ry per se but I give my at­ten­tion to the young peo­ple around me and give them ad­vice when need­ed be­cause you nev­er know what they are go­ing through in their re­spec­tive homes, schools, work and some­times they feel more con­fi­dent to con­fide things in oth­ers in­stead of their par­ents so I pre­fer to be that some­one else who they can trust,” he added.

Dhan­raj, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the coun­cil­lor for the area Ryan Ram­per­sad, would be host­ing an an­nu­al car show/sound off and Fam­i­ly Day on April 14, at the new­ly opened The Well Wa­ter Park at Ra­goo­nanan Road in Cunu­pia.

Dhan­raj as­sured that it is an event fo­cused on the chil­dren and youth and urged mem­bers of the cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ty to fol­low suit, “each busi­ness­man in their own way can ven­ture in­to or­gan­is­ing ex­cur­sions for the youths…boys group, women’s group…some­thing to keep them in­ter­est­ed in and move them away from crime and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. It is not just about mon­ey at the end of the day…it is time for us to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty and help in the heal­ing process and tak­ing back T&T from crime.”

Ram­per­sad al­so chal­lenged oth­er coun­cil­lors to do the same and host pos­i­tive events in their re­spec­tive ar­eas for the youths.