CARISA LEE

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

As the coun­try gets ready for the first in­take of mi­grant chil­dren in­to schools in Sep­tem­ber, the Caribbean Kids and Fam­i­lies Ther­a­py Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CK­FTO) has been train­ing 140 teach­ers on how to iden­ti­fy and as­sist those chil­dren who have de­vel­op­men­tal de­lays or suf­fer­ing from trau­ma.

“How to see the red flags and al­so how to work with them in the class­room. So if they are hav­ing chil­dren, let’s say with AD­HD... what strate­gies and skills they can use in the class­room for this child, to help that child be ed­u­cat­ed fur­ther...com­mu­ni­ca­tion with that child, words to use, how to ap­proach them,” the NGO’s gen­er­al man­ag­er Krista Hamel-Smith said.

Hamel-Smith added that the CK­FTO, lo­cat­ed at Vi­dale Street, St James, host­ed three vir­tu­al train­ing ses­sions with the teach­ers. So far, 19 Ro­man Catholic schools across the coun­try have been list­ed to ac­cept mi­grant chil­dren when the new aca­d­e­m­ic year starts.

She said part of the work­shop in­clud­ed a psy­chol­o­gist who pro­vid­ed train­ing.

CK­FTO is a non-prof­it pae­di­atric in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary clin­ic that start­ed in April 2008 and caters to chil­dren from birth to the age of 21 who may be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing de­vel­op­men­tal, phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and so­cial chal­lenges.

Co-founder and vice chair Sofia Figueroa-Leon said ini­tial­ly, its pur­pose was to as­sist Trin­bag­o­ni­ans but as the po­lit­i­cal and so­cial ten­sions in Venezuela led to thou­sands of its cit­i­zens flee­ing to T&T, they de­cid­ed to in­clude mi­grant and refugee chil­dren.

“To ed­u­cate the fa­cil­i­ta­tors who are cur­rent­ly ed­u­cat­ing them,” Figueroa-Leon added.

Hamel-Smith ex­plained that while some mi­grant chil­dren came with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties that teach­ers may be able to iden­ti­fy and work on with them, such as dyslex­ia and AD­HD, the stress from their jour­ney and ex­pe­ri­ences can al­so im­pact them.

“You gonna see chil­dren who have come with­out their par­ents or fam­i­ly mem­bers,” she said.

“It’s a bar­rage of trau­ma,” Figueroa-Leon added.

The gen­er­al man­ag­er said some of the trau­ma fac­ing the chil­dren al­so orig­i­nat­ed here in T&T.

“There is a lot of stig­ma, there is a lot of seg­re­ga­tion and the ac­tu­al in­ter­ac­tion with Trinida­di­ans wasn’t very pleas­ant for them,” she re­vealed.

Both women are proud of the work be­ing done by the NGO but lament­ed a lack of fund­ing.

“Every cent makes a dif­fer­ence,” Figueroa-Leon said.