1000 Strong For Peace
If you saw hundreds of people walking with colourful banners around the Queen’s Park Savannah on Saturday 23rd October, 2010, don’t worry – they weren’t protesting nor did Carnival come back so soon. The event was Families in Action’s Walk for Peace and the walkers were students from fifteen primary and secondary schools, along with their friends, parents and teachers. The banners that you would have seen had messages promoting peace in our nation’s schools and communities and were created by the students.
Through our work in schools, Families in Action has recognized that violence and aggression have become a norm in the classroom; hence the Walk for Peace which was the launch of a year-long in-school project ‘Bring back the Old-time Days’. The aim of this project is to re-establish a sense of community within the schools and will take the form of a pay-it-forward game, various workshops and a documentary-making competition. It will all culminate in July 2011 with a grand prize giving and awards ceremony.
Thirteen (13) secondary schools in Trinidad and two (2) in Tobago have been selected to participate in the ‘Bring back the Old-time Days’ project; which would not have been possible without kind sponsorship from JB Fernandes Memorial Trust I, United Way of Trinidad & Tobago, British Gas, TSTT and Oscar Francois Limited