Teens talk about COVID-19 and online schooling
May 1, 2020
Allow the Good Shepherd to shepherd your soul
May 4, 2020
The Archdiocese of Port of Spain’s ‘Let No-One Go Hungry’ project was launched live via Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) on Friday, May 1.
Vicar for Communications Fr Robert Christo and Vicar for Formations and Priestly Formation Fr Matthew d’Hereaux explained that the appeal is a national drive, not only for donations and distribution but for neighbours to look out for each other and identify where possible to assist.
The project, Fr Matthew explained, was possible with support of corporate organisations, individuals and networking.
Fr Christo said that there are many persons in need and in distress. The parish priest at St Dominic’s RC Penal shared that businesses have laid off workers, and people are going days without food.
No-one, he stressed, should go hungry each night “when we have so much”.
“So the RC Church has taken a pastoral response to give them something to eat…. We need rice, flour, tuna cereal, milk, crix, toilet paper, milo, sugar…. We need things to put on people’s table. This week alone almost 5,000 hampers were given away at our parish sites and distribution sites. We are asking to squeeze everything good that comes out of COVID….” Fr Christo said.
Anyone in need and those interested in donating are urged to contact 607-HOPE (4673).
Fr Christo stressed the donations are not simply “handouts”.
“It is teaching you how to fish so afterwards people call you integrate you into a skills-set building so it is a whole comprehensive programme not for COVID, [but] post-COVID and it is not only for Catholics, it is for anybody in need.”
Fr Matthew also appealed to individuals, school principals, teachers to develop a data base of persons, e.g. school vendors, unemployed, self-employed and children who were affected prior to COVID-19 and/or are at risk financially.
“And once we have that data base, we are going to start reaching out….” Fr Matthew said.
“So we are talking about NGOs, CBOs, faith-based organisations, the idea of this national drive is that we can all work together. Remove all racial, political, religious boundaries, remove the boundary of indifference because sometimes we can be indifferent … remove all of that,” he said. —KJ
