PM Manning should put the money where mouth is

With the 2004-2005 Budget expected soon, Judy Wilson of the Rainbow Rescue Home, is asking Prime Minister Patrick Manning to allocate a crisis shelter for street children in downtown Port-of-Spain, pointing out that many of them hit the streets when they run away from their homes. “We have to try and catch them when they get on the streets because if they stay there too long, they will end up in gangs and criminal activities,” said Wilson. There is also a need for several more children’s homes like Rainbow Rescue and the Credo Centre for Socially Displaced Children, including a residential clinic in which they can receive psychological treatment and counselling, she said. She pointed out that one way in which Government can ensure that children who survived the streets become law-abiding and society building adults, is to provide a few low-cost housing shelters.

Wilson noted that after they leave the children’s homes and enter adulthood they struggle to find somewhere to live because they cannot afford the rents that are currently available. If not, they end up on the streets once again and turn to a life of crime. “The Prime Minister talks so much about Social Services Delivery and social development programmes, but if Government cannot put things in place for homeless children, then they are wasting their time,” she said. Joycelyn Ransome of the Credo Centre agreed that the problem of street children has become very serious. “I too had to turn away a child this week,” she said. Ransome reiterated that a crisis shelter for street children needs to be established soon if we are to save the street children from turning into tomorrow’s criminals.