The shelter currentlty caters for up to 26 persons and the women are encouraged to support each other in a communal style of living .

It also accepts boys up to ten years of age .

Chairman of the shelter, Anthony Inglefield, said the shelter accepts survivors of domestic violence from all over the country who are referred through 800- SAVE; the various embassies; social workers; police stations and the Children’s Authority. He said the women and girls are of different ages and the shelter tries to keep familites together. In adition to battered women, it also houses abused and abandoned children and have sometimes provided shelter for victims of human trafficking. Inglefield said the length of stay at the shelter varies depends on the nature of the cases. According to Inglefield, “The counselling provide guides how we manage their care and by extension, their stay. We’ve had women stay for days to as much as a year. Unfortunately too, so many of them are financially vulnerable, they do not have anywhere to go. What we don’t want to happen is they go back into the abusive situation they escaped from. Our aim is to provide the support they need to leave feeling empowered and in control of their lives.” The public will get an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing work of the shelter on June 30 when it holds its annual Tea Fundraiser hosted by Yvonne Webber, the wife of the Australian High Commissioner at their residence in Moka, Maraval .

A highlight of the fundraiser will be a silent art auction of the works of several well-known local artists including Donald ‘Jackie’ Hinkson; Abigail Sabeeney, Peter Sheppard, Trevor Rostant and Beverley Fitzwilliam-Harries .

Explaining her passion for the project, Webber said “Domestic violence is something that I feel strongly about and we should do whatever we can to eradicate it from society and help survivors of domestic violence.” bmobile is supporting the work of the shelter and Graeme Suite, its Senior Manager Brand, Public Relations and External Affairs said the company is excited to support the work of organisations like the shelter which work to eliminate abuse and promote equality, especially among the vulnerable in the society. “We need to be always willing to work towards eliminating abuse and reverse its effects on women and children. It is necessary and important for the public to also partner in this special event to be a part of the community of change.”

The TT travelling contingent will comprise 45 people including parents.

Over 1000 athletes from 36 countries will participate at the Championship. Some of the events TT will be competing in are single rope freestyle, single rope pairs, speed and double dutch.

Daniel Mercer and Jerrisha Duncan Regis, who will be representing this country, are both anticipating medals from the team.

Mercer, who is 11 years old, is very confident going into the Championship.

“I am hoping to win two gold medals,” Mercer said.

He said training has intensified recently as the competition gets closer.

“We train three days a week, but over the last two weeks we have been training everyday,” he explained. Mercer said some of the other countries that would be competing are China, USA, Jamaica and Canada. Jerrisha, who is 19 years old, spoke about TT ’s strong points.

“I believe that speed and freestyle are Trinidad and Tobago’s strong points, so I definitely see some medals there.

All the kids are looking forward to it.

For some of them it is the first time (competing), some have competed before, so they know what to expect, but everybody is excited.” Vice-president of the TT Jump Rope Federation, Mahalia Duncan Regis, is expecting the older athletes to lead from the front.

Mahalia said, “We have a senior team so we expect the senior team to do really well. We have a junior team that are the young developing athletes so we hoping for the best for the junior team also.” The TT team will be hoping that the venue brings them more success.

At the Pan American Jump Rope Championships last year at the University of Central Florida, TT won 49 medals and two trophies.

Blewitt made the comments during an address to the Annual General Meeting of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) on Saturday at the headquarters of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) in St Augustine.

He was invited by the President of the IRO, Br Harrypersad Maharaj, to address the growing issue of crime that is wreaking havoc in Trinidad and its impact worldwide. Blewitt spoke about the Millennium Development Goals 2016 to 2030 and pointed to the importance of Sustainable Development, poverty reduction, quality education, peace, justice and strong institutions.

He spoke of the UN contribution in Trinidad in sustaining these goals, including strengthening of civil society, in the process acknowledging the role and contribution of the IRO in this area as well as the social security programmes.

The programme was attended by Secretary General of the SDMS, Satnarine Maharaj and Dharmacharya Pandit Uttam Maharaj.

The Prime Minister made the remarks in a press release issued yesterday, in which he called on both muslims and non-Muslims to join together for the sake of the nation.

“Today, following the austerity of the month of Ramadan, the Muslim community will gather to offer thanks to Allah for having the strength and will to observe the fast during the holy month. Having done this, on Eidul- Fitr, everyone who has fasted may face the year ahead with renewed strength, greater understanding and universal goodwill.” the release stated.

Dr Rowley also praised the muslim community in TT for their longstanding commitment to social upliftment and encouraged muslims to continue their mission of peace and goodwill to their fellow men. He added that the end of fasting should serve as an opportunity for greater introspection.

“Perhaps the greatest significance of this special day of rejoicing is the tradition of freely sharing a portion of what one has with those who are needy and vulnerable. We witness an outpouring of generosity towards one another.” “We see the best of human nature and depth of good character of which we all are capable.

The fast of Ramadan shows how it feels to be hungry; Eid-ul-Fitr shows the real meaning of selflessness, goodwill and community.” Eid-ul-fitr which means ‘the festival of breaking fast’, marks the end of month-long fasting for Ramadan and is one of the most important events in the Muslim calendar

The victim identified as PC Charles and another officer PC Ramsubhag, both of the Southern Division Task Force were on mobile patrol in Princes Town around 7.30 pm on Saturday when they responded to a report that a mentally ill man was threatening residents along the Naparima Mayaro road in the vicinity of the Princes Town Fire Station.

On arrival at the scene police reports state, the man began throwing pieces of steel rods and stones at the officers. Charles attempted to subdue the man when he pulled out a knife and stabbed him in his back. He also sustained a cut to left little finger.

Charles fell to the ground with the impact of the stabbing and injured his left knee.

With the assistance of PC Ramsubhag and other officers who arrived at the scene, the mentalli ill man was subdued and taken to the Princes Town Police Station while Charles was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he remains warded. Cpl.

Malloo is continuing investigations.

Over the past three months, four mentally ill men —Paul Marchan, Raymond Joseph, Daniel Paul and Edison Thompson – have been shot dead by police prompting criticisms from some sectors in the society including Roman Catholic priest Fr Martin Sirju who called for respect for the mentally ill.

Central’s bitter Couva rivals and last season’s runners-up only by a point, W Connection, in the second game of the night’s double- header, defeated Club Sando 3-1 for their third straight win from as many games this term and are the only team perfect at the top of the standings.

Neil Benjamin Jr. ended the rain-soaked night with a second- half double and an assist after setting up Suriname international forward Dimitri Apai’s opening item for the Savonetta Boys, while Keyon Edwards grabbed the lone Sando item.

In the earlier game, however, it was one-way traffic as Central ran away with the biggest win of the season to date.

Sean De Silva opened the scoring and set up Taryk Sampson’s first Couva Sharks goal on a night that Johan Peltier and 2006 World Cup defender Carlos Edwards also put their names on the scoresheet before Jason Marcano completed the rout from the penalty spot.

Civic coach Reynold Carrington had stuck with Akini Adams between the sticks while Trinidad and Tobago international goalkeeper Marvin Phillip, who recently returned from representing the Soca Warriors at FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifiers, warmed the substitutes’ bench.

It turned out a very cold night for Adams, whose onion bag was stretched five times by the serial champions after earlier rainfall forced a late start to the match, due to waterlogged corners of the pitch.

The intervention of Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TT FA) president David John-Williams led to the successful pumping out of the water and the eventual start to the night’s double-header.

Central proved the warmer of the two sides and could have taken a two-goal cushion within the first five minutes with both chances falling to De Silva.

The Couva Sharks’ skipper, however, redeemed himself on the half-hour mark with a cool finish past Adams to find the far bottom corner after slipping free inside the right of the Civic area.

Civic, boasting a couple new talents in offence and the return of central defender Andre Ettienne as captain, were carved open at a back five minutes later and Peltier made light work of his marker before firing past Adams from the edge of the area for a 2-0 Central lead.

Civic were fortunate not to concede another three minutes before the break when a De Silva free-kick rattled the upright.

But it was from a left side De Silva corner on the hour mark that Sampson headed past Adams at first post put Central on a commanding 3-0 lead.

Carlos Edwards made it 4-0 less than ten minutes later when he slid in the area to bury a Peltier cross past Adams, before Marcano completed the five-nil rout by converting from the spot in the 77th minute after former TT youth player Stephan Campbell was adjudged to have brought down goal-scorer Peltier in the area

“We often advise people if you are concerned about your safety, you may want to vacate and go to a safer area, but invariably people do not do that. What people do is that they stay in their homes and wait to see the extent of flooding.” Williams encouraged citizens to take a more proactive approach to ensuring their personal safety by leaving their homes and seeking shelter elsewhere until flooding subsides.

He said that emergency response services usually only respond to affected areas once flood water has drained which could take hours before persons left behind in these areas receive assistance.

“The response agencies usually wait until the water recedes before we come to these affected areas to assess the damage, so it’s only when those flood waters have receded we tend to get a sense of the level of impact.” He added that while heavy showers were expected to occur during the weekend into today, no flash flooding has been reported so far but urged persons who may have been affected by recent flooding to learn from past experiences and secure their homes before major flooding occurs.

“Flood happens every year so this a fairly routine occurrence, what people should be doing is learning from their past experiences, but what people tend to do is wait and see and only after the flooding has come they choose to act.”

Even with watercourses cleared and dredged, some flooding will take place during periods of exceptionally heavy rainfall. However, in our circumstances, widespread flooding occurs even when there is moderate rainfall and of course there is absolute disaster and chaos in periods of torrential rainfall.

This situation is all too well known by the Drainage Division of the Ministry of Works but absolutely nothing is done to institute preventive or mitigating measures during the course of the dry season.

This neglect seems to be due primarily to an appalling indolence, lack of will and non-existent accountability and secondarily to a lack of resources. If there is one grossly non-functional department in the whole of the government administration, it must be the Drainage Division.

The political directorate is equally culpable including those at the local government level. Perhaps the recent disastrous and widespread flooding will propel the administration to take preventive measures seriously and direct investment to drainage infrastructure, flood control and mitigation.

I wish to relate my own experience.

I am particularly concerned about the constant flooding problem in the Debe district where my family home is situated. After the extensive flooding in the area in early August 2014, I approached the MP for the constituency, Dr Roodal Moonilal, who invited Ganga Singh, then minister responsible for water management, to look at the problem and take corrective action.

Incidentally, Singh has always been associated with some aspect of water — whether WASA, desalination or ground water. It is no wonder he carries the name Ganga.

This goodly minister came by helicopter to tour from the air, not to assess the problem on the ground. I pointed out to him that the main watercourse in the Debe district was the Cucharon River which was partly paved and that the paving needed to be continued to the Gandhi Village Road to enable a much faster run-off. In the meantime it was urgent to have the river cleaned and dredged.

I also mentioned the need to clear the secondary watercourses leading to the Cucharon River and the desilting of roadside drains which may necessitate the use of gully-suckers.

After the helicopter departed, it was the last I saw of or heard from Ganga Singh. There was absolutely no follow-up action.

In December 2015, I went to see the then Minister of Works, Fitzgerald Hinds, and made the same representation for the relief of flooding in Debe. Again there was a deafening silence and no response despite repeated requests.

One colleague of his even advised the residents of La Brea that there was need to light a fire under Hinds to get him to act.

From the comatose Hinds, we have moved to the self-acclaimed mover and shaker, Rohan Sinanan.

I saw him in December 2016 and pointed out the necessity to undertake urgent cleaning and dredging of the watercourses in the Debe area during the dry season of this year, pending the continuation of paving of the Cucharon River.

Again absolutely no action was forthcoming.

In the recent flooding of Debe post-Bret, I contacted the councillor for Debe West in the Penal Debe Regional Corporation, the chairman of the PDRC and a supervisor in the corporation. For the past three days no one from the PDRC has visited let alone organised any clean-up operations.

What we have had are numerous publicised tours, gallery photo sessions, grand announcements of mobilisation of resources and ritual promises of relief. All this theatre was subsequent to the disastrous flooding event which could either have been substantially avoided or its effects minimised by resolute preventive action.

According to reports, at around 9.20 am, a black Nissan Tiida car drove towards the buildings from the parking lot and fired at windows in both buildings.

Officers attached to the Maloney Police Station visited the scene and recovered several spent shells, however no arrests were made.

Police have yet to establish a motive for the shooting. Investigations are continuing.

It was a showdown between Ahye and former national record holder Kelly Ann Baptiste in the women’s 100m final which carried more star power and allure than the men’s counterpart. It was a close race between Ahye and Baptiste with the latter getting the better start. But Ahye caught her older rival with about 70m to go and powered to the finish line with ease in 10.82 seconds to break Baptiste’s national record of 10.84. Baptiste clocked 10.88 to take the silver while Khalifa St Fort earned the bronze in a new national junior record of 11.06.

Semoy Hackett just missed the World Championships standard of 11.26 finishing fourth in 11.27. After the victory, Ahye said, “I feel really great. I am just going to go back to training do what I was doing and get ready for London (World Championships).” Ahye said it was not the plan to make the World Championships standard in the preliminaries, saying she just ran her race and it worked out like that. In the semifinal round of the women’s 100m Ahye easily won semifinal one in 11.09. She made the World standard of 11.26 on Friday evening when she won her preliminary race in 11.15.

Callender, now 33 years old, won his first national title with a time of 10.10. Keston Bledman of Simplex was second in 10.15 and Rondell Sorillo of La Brea took bronze also in 10.15. Missing from the men’s 100m event this year was national record holder Richard Thompson.

Callender was consistent throughout the rounds, making the World standard of 10.12 in the preliminaries before clocking 10.11 in the semifinals.

After the win, the veteran sprinter said, “I just want to give God thanks for coming out here. I stayed healthy and showed people and the youths as well no matter what people say you could come out here, trust God and still perform at the highest level – without drugs most important thing.” In the women’s 400m finals, Domonique Williams of Abilene won gold in 52.74. Williams was in control of the race after 100m and maintained her lead for the remainder of the race. She struggled in the final 20m but had enough to hang on for the win. Unfortunately Williams did not make the World standard of 52.10. Winning silver was Chelsi Ann Charles of Simplex in 54.46 and Rae-Ann Serville of Memphis Pioneers earned bronze in 54.69.

In the men’s 400m finals it was a star-studded line up with Machel Cedenio (Simplex), Lalonde Gordon (Unattached), Jarrin Solomon (Memphis Pioneers) and Renny Quow (Zenith) all featuring.

Cedenio, the national record holder, was out quickly after 100m while Jacob St Clair was staying in contention for a medal. When the runners approached the final bend, it was a showdown between Cedenio and Gordon with Quow and Solomon trailing. Cedenio held on to win gold in 44.90, followed by Gordon in 45.27, Quow in 45.71 and Solomon in 46.09. St Clair was fifth in 46.13. Cedenio and Gordon both made the World standard of 45.50.

In the only preliminary race of the men’s 400m hurdles, World 2013 champion Jehue Gordon of Memphis Pioneers was not convincing finishing fourth in 52.09.

The athletes in the event were battling for lane assignments as there was only one semifinal as some athletes failed to start. Eric Alejandro of Puerto Rico qualified for the final with the fastest time of 49.85, ahead of Kern Alexis of Memphis Pioneers (50.21) and Juander Santos of Dominican Republic (51.81).

The final will take place today. Action resumes today from 3 pm.

OTHER RESULTS:
Men’s 1500m Finals
1 Tallan James – Grenada – 4:06.16
2 Mark London – Zenith – 4:06.81
3 Jonathan Antoine – Speed Factory – 4:12.01

Men’s Shot Put Finals
1 Hezekiel Romeo – Rebirth – 18.19m
2 Shevorne Worrell – UTT Fast Track – 16.73m
3 Josh Hazzard – Grenada – 16.09m

Women’s Javelin Finals
1 Chuntal Mohan – UTT Fast Track – 43.60m
2 Talena Murray – Zenith – 41.30m
3 Gwendolyn Smith – Palo Seco – 39.57m

Women’s Discus Finals
1 La Toya Gilding – Striders – 42.83m
2 Chelsea James – Falcons -42.73m
3 Portious Warren – Toco Tafac – 41.19m