Cana­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Karen L Mc­Don­ald re­cent­ly paid a vis­it to two Ser­vol Train­ing Cen­tres lo­cat­ed in East Port-of-Spain. "Ser­vice Vol­un­teered for All", or Ser­vol, as the in­sti­tu­tion is more pop­u­lar­ly known, has been op­er­at­ing for more than 40 years and can proud­ly at­test to the ef­forts and ac­com­plish­ments of its an­nu­al 3,000-plus stu­dent pop­u­la­tion at its 30 lo­ca­tions across Trinidad. The Cana­di­an High Com­mis­sion's Cana­da Fund for Lo­cal Ini­tia­tives pro­gramme has been work­ing with Ser­vol for the past 18 years in its ef­forts to as­sist at-risk chil­dren and ado­les­cents from low-in­come fam­i­lies.

The most re­cent project sup­port­ed by Cana­da served to en­hance the abil­i­ty of Ser­vol's in­struc­tors and sup­port staff to work with trau­ma-in­flict­ed youth.At the Beetham cen­tre, the High Com­mis­sion­er and her col­leagues were warm­ly wel­comed by the fa­cil­i­ty's ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Mar­tin Pacheco, and his team, who com­mend­ed the Cana­da fund for its con­tri­bu­tions to Ser­vol over the years.Mc­Don­ald was able to see Ser­vol's staff and stu­dents at work in de­part­ments such as au­to me­chan­ics, beau­ty cul­ture, food prepa­ra­tion, wood­work, weld­ing, tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion and child­care.She was im­pressed by the ded­i­ca­tion and dis­ci­pline of the stu­dents, and by the fact that many of them re­turn to share their ex­per­tise as in­struc­tors.

The High Com­mis­sion team al­so vis­it­ed Ser­vol's Hi-Tech Cen­tre, where they ob­served the val­ues of pro­fes­sion­al­ism and in­dus­try at work.They saw busi­ness-at­tired stu­dents, age 19 and un­der, im­mersed in their course work in busi­ness ad­min­is­tra­tion, com­put­er lit­er­a­cy, com­put­er re­pair, net­work­ing and ad­vanced graph­ics. Mc­Don­ald was very im­pressed with all she ob­served. She com­mend­ed Ser­vol on its suc­cess over the years and en­cour­aged the stu­dents to main­tain their de­ter­mi­na­tion and hard work in achiev­ing their life goals.