Pas­tor Clive Dot­tin says it is time for the coun­try’s lead­ers lis­ten to young voic­es cry­ing out for an end to the vi­o­lence and crime af­flict­ing T&T.

Dot­tin was speak­ing at an an­ti-crime march host­ed by the San­gre Grande SDA Pri­ma­ry School on Mon­day.

He con­grat­u­lat­ed prin­ci­pal Denise El­liot and her staff for the march, not­ing crime had touched the school fol­low­ing the mur­der of a six-year-old.

“They are still in pain for a child who nev­er live to ful­fil her dreams, she was shot and killed. In ad­di­tion, the crim­i­nals had no sym­pa­thy, they lat­er burned down the house. It is ri­val­ry and re­venge by gangs who are de­stroy­ing the young and hav­ing hav­oc on so­ci­ety. This is where we are. It is a re­venge so­ci­ety,” Dot­tin said.

He said every child at the SDA Pri­ma­ry school is feel­ing the pain and hurt and does not want this to hap­pen to any oth­er child in San­gre Grande or T&T.

“The chil­dren want change in so­ci­ety, they want to see a restora­tion of fam­i­ly growth, there is too much hate in so­ci­ety, lis­ten to their voic­es,” Pas­tor Dot­tin ap­pealed.

He said in or­der to achieve this, it must be a to­tal ef­fort amongst Hin­dus, Mus­lims, Chris­tians po­lice, the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and politi­cians.

“We have to change our per­cep­tion if suc­cess is to be achieved in the fight against crime,” he said, adding we are more con­cerned about re­duc­ing the mur­der rate than elim­i­nat­ing crime.

“We don’t think elim­i­nat­ing crime is a pos­si­bil­i­ty, but with God all things are pos­si­ble. Let us get out of the four walls and like home in­va­sion, in­vade the drug den, the pros­ti­tute den, the hu­man traf­fick­ing den and fear­less­ly, with God on our side, take down this gi­ant called crime.”

Prin­ci­pal El­liot said the school is in a hot spot and has been neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ed by crime. She too ap­pealed for all to join forces to­geth­er against crime.

“It is our pur­pose to fight crime,” she said.

El­liot called on all schools in the North East­ern Dis­trict to do their best in the fight against crime.

Dur­ing the event, stu­dents, par­ents and teach­ers, led by Pas­tor Dot­tin, walked through Ojoe Road in­to the Main Street of San­gre Grande armed with mes­sages on plac­ards that read, “Pro­tect Our Kids;” “Let us love one an­oth­er;” “The World Needs more love;” “Say no to Vi­o­lence;” “Put down the Guns;” and chant­i­ng “Stop the Vi­o­lence.”

—With re­port­ing by Ralph Ban­warie