BO­BIE-LEE DIXON

bo­bie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt

The In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion (IRO) of T&T will soon an­nounce its ver­sion of a re­cov­ery-type pro­gramme for the na­tion’s youth.

Head of the IRO Dr Knol­ly Clarke said so dur­ing an in­ter­view. Ac­cord­ing to Clarke, the or­gan­i­sa­tion will meet with­in the next two weeks to de­sign the mul­ti-pronged pro­gramme.

Clarke said as an or­gan­i­sa­tion rep­re­sent­ing re­li­gious bod­ies, the fun­da­men­tal of the pro­gramme will take on the in­flu­ence of spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and moral­i­ty but it would al­so ad­dress and deal with the many so­cial is­sues faced by young peo­ple and, by ex­ten­sion, the fam­i­ly.

He al­so said the pro­gramme, which will be taught from the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s teach­ing cen­tre in Port-of-Spain, will seek to en­sure chil­dren from non-de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools where re­li­gious ed­u­ca­tion was ab­sent, would have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­gage and par­tic­i­pate in such lessons.

He said the de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools were work­ing with their chil­dren but it was time all the na­tion’s schools had some form of re­li­gious teach­ings, which he be­lieves would aid in their all-round de­vel­op­ment.

With re­gards to its work with re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, Clarke said its func­tion dur­ing the glob­al cri­sis has been and con­tin­ues to be a mon­i­to­ry one.

He said the IRO had been stay­ing in close com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the var­i­ous re­li­gious bod­ies and church­es to en­sure they were ad­her­ing to all health pro­to­cols to avoid any spread of the coro­n­avirus.

Clarke said rather than just act­ing in a mon­i­to­ry role, it want­ed to do more than that, hence the idea to cre­ate the pro­gramme which can even ben­e­fit the church.

Clarke said he had a dream for the in­sti­tu­tion of fam­i­ly in the so­ci­ety and this is was why the IRO would now take this ap­proach.

He said minds were com­ing in­to the IRO in­clud­ing young minds and this was a good sign.