Tag: children

columns2021

Children on remand

Post author By Web administrator
Post date July 11, 2021
Sticky post

Photo by Obed john on Unsplash

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

“Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think.” —Pope Francis.

In T&T, our Church has been speaking out over the years about the number of persons held on remand in prison for inordinate lengths of time awaiting trial. It is public knowledge that quite a number of persons have been in prison for a longer time than the maximum sentence they would have received had they been tried and convicted for the crime alleged to have been committed.

Tags children, prison, remand

columns2021

Creating a child-friendly nation

Post author By Web administrator
Post date April 11, 2021
Sticky post

by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

Recently, I was interviewed by Onika James of radio i95.5FM, about the killing of two minors, Simeon Daniel, 15, and Antonio Francois, 16, who, along with three other youths, had escaped from one of the facilities run by the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CA).
Two of the other youths were shot but are in stable condition. The fifth minor, Ricardo Thompson, 15, has been speaking out about what he sees as deficiencies at the CA facility in which they were placed. They were in the care of the State when they escaped, sometime between March 19 and 20, after they squeezed through the burglar-proofing of a safe house.

Tags children, crime

columns2018

Reflections on Children’s Day

Post author By Web administrator
Post date November 20, 2018

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ

On Tuesday, November 20, the World will observe Universal Children’s Day, a day that also marks “the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the declaration and the convention on children’s rights.”

Pope Francis has said that “a society that abandons children and marginalises the elderly cuts off its roots and darkens its future…To take care of little ones and the elderly is a choice of civilisation.”

Tags children, Children's Day

columns2018

Saving our children

Post author By Web administrator
Post date April 8, 2018

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ, & Director, CREDI

“The family is important, and it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk.” – Pope Francis, 2013

I am in London at the moment and have been discussing with friends the impact of poverty on families/children in the UK. Child Poverty Action Group reports that “poverty affects one in four children in the UK today… poverty isn’t inevitable. With the right policies every child can have the opportunity to do well in life, and we all share the rewards of having a stronger economy and a healthier, fairer society.”

Tags children, children rights

columns2012

Children bring us God’s smile

Post author By Web administrator
Post date February 2, 2012

by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ

Every child brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognise that life is His gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment. (Pope Benedict XVI)

These words came to mind as I read about the pain that 6-year-old Josiah Governor must have gone through at the hands of his 25 year-old stepfather, now before the Court charged with his murder. On January 25, he reportedly told police that he used a piece of PVC pipe to beat Josiah because he was not paying attention during a maths lesson. It is also alleged that Josiah was thrown through a window after being beaten.

Tags child abuse, children, violence