The Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions would like to ex­tend con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Vi­sion on Mis­sion founder and ex­ec­u­tive pres­i­dent Wayne Chance who passed away on Sun­day evening.

Mr. Chance ded­i­cat­ed his life to serv­ing oth­ers af­ter he him­self over­came ad­verse cir­cum­stances that might have de­terred oth­ers. Through his work, Mr. Chance demon­strat­ed that any­one could be re­formed and rein­te­grat­ed in­to so­ci­ety to lead mean­ing­ful lives.

“To de­scribe him as a vi­sion­ary would not be over­stat­ed when one con­sid­ers the work he did, start­ing Vi­sion on Mis­sion from the ground up, with lit­tle fi­nan­cial re­sources and sup­port at that time. To­day that or­gan­i­sa­tion is ar­guably a ref­or­ma­tion in­sti­tu­tion of note in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” said Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Don­na Cox.

In ad­di­tion to Vi­sion on Mis­sion, Mr. Chance worked with half-way homes, train­ing and re­train­ing hun­dreds who faced chal­leng­ing and less than favourable sit­u­a­tions.

“I in­ter­act­ed with him reg­u­lar­ly when I was Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Prison Ser­vice was one of my ar­eas of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. He al­ways pro­vid­ed me with per­ti­nent in­for­ma­tion that helped the re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive ef­forts to be un­der­tak­en in the Prison Ser­vice.”

Mr. Chance’s ad­vice, Min­is­ter Cox said, pro­vid­ed her with a unique per­spec­tive and a greater un­der­stand­ing of those who were de­port­ed back to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“I am grate­ful for the friend­ship we shared. He nev­er wa­vered in his be­liefs and he was a source of com­fort, sup­port and guid­ance to those who sought and need­ed his coun­sel. We’ve lost a friend and an ad­vo­cate who con­tributed pos­i­tive­ly to Trinidad and To­ba­go.”