JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

NGO provides support to migrant women on International Women’s Day

by

Radhica De Silva
6 days ago
20250309
Christine Boodoo, founder of the Living Evolution Charitable Foundation, and Angie Ramnarine, co-ordinator of the La Romain Migrant Support group, present a hamper to Belen Rengel at her San Fernando home during the hamper distribution drive yesterday.

Christine Boodoo, founder of the Living Evolution Charitable Foundation, and Angie Ramnarine, co-ordinator of the La Romain Migrant Support group, present a hamper to Belen Rengel at her San Fernando home during the hamper distribution drive yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONTAH

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Mi­grant women con­tin­ue to face chal­lenges in T&T, and as the coun­try marked In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day, Chris­tine Boodoo and the Liv­ing Evo­lu­tion Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion do­nat­ed 45 food ham­pers to sup­port strug­gling mi­grant fam­i­lies.

The ham­pers were de­liv­ered to Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine, co­or­di­na­tor of the La Ro­main Mi­grant Sup­port Group, who has been as­sist­ing mi­grant fam­i­lies since 2019.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Boodoo said the ham­per dri­ve has been on­go­ing across the coun­try, even though the foun­da­tion is based in Cen­tral.

“We do 50 ham­pers, cloth­ing, food­stuff every month. We do sta­tionery dri­ves and back-to-school dri­ves. We try to help as many peo­ple as we can,” Boodoo said.

How­ev­er, she not­ed that fi­nan­cial con­straints of­ten lim­it their ef­forts. “Lots of times we are un­able to do as much as we like due to lack of fund­ing, so most times it comes out of our own pock­ets. I would nev­er want to see a child go hun­gry,” Boodoo said.

She not­ed that the ris­ing cost of liv­ing has made it hard­er for fam­i­lies to sur­vive.

“We are see­ing lots of un­em­ploy­ment right now. Many peo­ple have lost their jobs, and the price of food has gone up. What we did a year ago for a fam­i­ly of six in terms of cost, we can’t do again. We will have to pay more be­cause every­thing has gone up. The cost of liv­ing has gone up.”

She em­pha­sised that the foun­da­tion helps peo­ple re­gard­less of back­ground.

“We go wher­ev­er and help who­ev­er we can. Some of us mi­grat­ed and were in this sit­u­a­tion, so why not re­turn the help to our lo­cal mi­grants? They are hu­mans too, every­one is look­ing for a bet­ter way of life,” Boodoo said.

She urged women to sup­port each oth­er.

“I wish that women help women. Some women be­lit­tle and look down on oth­ers, but we are all women, equal. Jobs don’t des­ig­nate us, and sta­tus doesn’t sep­a­rate us. We should be there for one an­oth­er.”

Ram­nar­ine said her or­gan­i­sa­tion has cut its mi­grant ham­per dri­ve be­cause of fi­nan­cial strug­gles.

“We used to sup­port about 100 mi­grant fam­i­lies but now we do just about 30 fam­i­lies,” she said.

She not­ed that mi­grant women con­tin­ue to face se­ri­ous chal­lenges not­ing that ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion was lim­it­ed to a few.

“That’s why the La Ro­main Mi­grant Sup­port Group has shift­ed its fo­cus to ed­u­ca­tion. This year, we couldn’t con­tin­ue the food dis­tri­b­u­tion, so we nar­rowed it down to fo­cus on chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion. Too many of these chil­dren can­not get in­to es­tab­lished schools and do not have the op­por­tu­ni­ty for green­er pas­tures,” Ram­nar­ine said.

She not­ed there are 43 chil­dren en­rolled at the LARM’s school held at the La Ro­maine RC Church.

Ram­nar­ine al­so said that some mi­grants left T&T to go to the Unit­ed States be­fore the elec­tion.

Ram­nar­ine not­ed that the sup­port from the Liv­ing Evo­lu­tion Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion was time­ly.

“It is so nice that we have a day to rec­og­nize the worth of women and their con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety, in­clud­ing all our mi­grant women,” she added.

Any­one want­i­ng to con­tact the Liv­ing Evo­lu­tion Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion can call Boodoo at 324-7696.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored