Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Don­na Cox, met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous Faith Based Or­ga­ni­za­tions (FBOs) on Wednes­day pro­vid­ing an op­por­tu­ni­ty for Apos­tles and Rev­erends from var­i­ous de­nom­i­na­tions to share their strate­gic and op­er­a­tional plans with the Min­istry, en­sur­ing that it aligns with the Min­istry’s man­date of help­ing vul­ner­a­ble per­sons across the dif­fer­ent re­gions of T&T.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, dis­cus­sions were al­so held on ways in which the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices and FBOs can work to­geth­er to sup­port vul­ner­a­ble per­sons in dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties. Cox took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to em­pha­size the im­por­tance of giv­ing sup­port to per­sons dur­ing times of hard­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly emo­tion­al sup­port such as coun­selling. Among those present was Apos­tle Ter­rence Hon­ore, Pres­i­dent of the Chris­t­ian Coun­ci­Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter Cox, “The Min­istry con­tin­ues to en­gage or­gan­i­sa­tions with in­for­ma­tion on its var­i­ous grants and ser­vices and how such could be ac­cessed by those in need, by de­liv­er­ing rel­e­vant and per­ti­nent in­for­ma­tion about the Min­istry’s var­i­ous pro­grammes, grants and ser­vices, di­rect­ly to cit­i­zens in their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties, with the aim of clar­i­fy­ing is­sues re­lat­ed to ac­cess, whilst treat­ing with con­cerns and re­spons­es from the Min­istry. It is im­por­tant for FBOs to as­sist the Min­istry in reach­ing those we are un­able to reach.”

Both par­ties agreed that in­ter­ven­tions are need­ed in var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties, and that it’s im­por­tant to work to­geth­er in or­der to ad­dress the so­cial is­sues fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day, such as pover­ty and poor par­ent­ing.

In clos­ing, Min­is­ter Cox stat­ed that she looks for­ward to meet­ing with more faith-based or­ga­ni­za­tions and fur­ther re­as­sured those present of the Min­istry’s com­mit­ment to­wards help­ing, em­pow­er­ing and trans­form­ing lives.

In at­ten­dance were Apos­tle Ter­rence Hon­ore, Pres­i­dent of the Chris­t­ian Coun­cil of San Fer­nan­do; Rev­erend Ju­dith Hon­ore – Wid­ows As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T; Min­is­ter Lesane-Se­lassie Gabre Yesus – Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Church; Apos­tle Mar­va Pech­er – Springs of Life Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Church; and Min­is­ter Du­ane Samm – Methodist Church.

The Min­istry re­mains com­mit­ted to col­lab­o­rat­ing with all sec­tors to en­sure that no one is left be­hind.l of San Fer­nan­do, who spoke about up­com­ing plans of the FBOs. Some of these plans in­clud­ed a re­quest to the Gov­ern­ment to grant land to mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go in an ef­fort to pro­vide a lo­ca­tion for the cel­e­bra­tion of Chris­t­ian faith, and al­so the es­tab­lish­ment of a per­ma­nent na­tion­al day of prayer and thanks­giv­ing.