Reporter
carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis wants to propose an extension for the ministry’s MpowerTT programme, which offers life skills training to young men.
“Don’t clap me yet, it have some people I have to convince to extend. I’m still trying to push towards one year, like Grenada has their programme for one year, clap me when I get to one year,” the minister said to the 82 trainees who attended the graduation ceremony at Radisson Hotel, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
Cudjoe-Lewis said she has called for an extension of the programme for the young men because she believes they need more time to unlearn the examples of manhood they were given.
“This is years of pent-up emotions, this is years of decades of being told that you’re nothing and you’re not going to be nothing in life,” she explained.
The life skills programme comprised four main components, which include weekly lounge talks on critical topics with young men across the nation, soft-skills training, career guidance, and one-on-one mentorship.
MpowerTT was launched in September 2022 and aims to promote positive images and messages for young men and encourage them to make wise decisions, channel their energies, map their future paths, and lead more valuable and rewarding lives.
The minister said when her ministry pitched the idea for the programme, stakeholders suggested it be moved to another ministry because of the number of participants from several different areas in Port-of-Spain and environs.
“They were trying to say this is too much for you, you have Sixx, you have Seven, you have the son of somebody who was recently killed, and so on, you have too many people mixed up here, it’s a big crime waiting to take place in this programme. So they recommended that we give the programme to the Ministry of National Security and I said no,” she shared.
Despite 38 dropouts, the young men appreciated the minister’s faith in them and admitted that their lives had changed for the better in the last six months.
Barataria resident and participant Isiah Mandley said he lost his brother earlier this year (January 16) and his grief propelled him to try something new.
Mandley said in the last six months, he learnt life skills, sharpened up his reading, and learnt plumbing.
“Right now, I could probably say that I am trying to be a plumber. Currently, I trying to open my business, I have all the documents...hopefully next year, allyuh could contact meh to fix somewhere in your house,” he said.
Anthony Sheppard, of Cocorite, said when he was younger he used to get into trouble for drawing and colouring in all the books his mother purchased for school. But he said the MpowerTT programme helped develop his craft.
“It started to pay off because I can finally monetise it now and the programme gave me the ability to move forward with my plans,” Sheppard said.
Tobagonian Akeem Balfour said he was sad to see the increase in crime in his community of Golden Lane and hoped more young men could access the programme.
“I feel very disappointed with that whole situation because most of the individuals who committed crime or are being killed in Tobago right now, are from the area I am from and it kind of sad to see that going on. I am far older than many of them who died just recently there,” he shared.