Three men staged a protest at Second Caledonia Extension Road in Morvant yesterday, calling on the Government to fix several pressing issues in their community.
The men claimed that the neighbourhood was promised a community centre approximately 15 years ago, but the land allotted for it has remained vacant.
Corey Bonadie, a resident of the area and one of the three protesters, demanded that the Laventille East Morvant Member of Parliament Adrian Leonce take action.
“We’re not asking for any handouts; we’re not asking for you all to come and give us $500 or $1,000. A community centre or a multi-purpose centre could curb youths away from crime,” Bonadie said.
Another man, Rudy Welch, said the community centre would be a turning point for the neighbourhood, as many young people are unemployed and need proper guidance to redirect themselves from a life of crime.
“Undeveloped communities give you undeveloped minds. Right now, we want a multi-purpose centre in this community so that we can start curbing crime from inside the community, so that you have an opportunity for the youths, that they will have an option to think a different way, to go a different road, to make themselves somebody,” Welch said.
Bonadie also referred to the area as “the forgotten community” and criticised the recent gas price increase.
“We are making a clarion call to the authorities to start showing us some kind of interest in this community, and when it comes to the budget, it was a kick in Trinidad and Tobago’s face, just by gas prices going up, everything going up. They attacked the elders, they now want them to pay for a boat to go to Tobago, and they attacked the teachers because they can’t protest. We’re just saying that we’re fed up,” Bonadie added.
Meanwhile, a larger protest is planned for today from the Aranguez Savannah in San Juan to the Red House in Port-of-Spain from 9 am.
Guardian Media reached out to MP Leonce for a comment but there was no response up to last evening.
