Inclusion was the prevailing theme as the Freely Give Foundation hosted its Easter Vacation camp for Longdenville’s children in April.
The Inclusive Cities, Communities of Solidarity project partnered with the Freely Give Foundation to sponsor transportation and meals for five Longdenville-based Venezuelan refugee and migrant children. This was done to facilitate their attendance to a camp preparing the community’s children for the upcoming school term and the impending hurricane season. 25 children in total participated in the camp, 20 from the hot community.
During the Easter vacation period, the Freely Give Foundation hosted a two-week Easter vacation camp for the children of the community. It took place at the Longdenville Community Centre and offered several topics such as keeping safe in the school environment during the COVID-19 pandemic; good touch/bad touch (equipping children with the ability to identify and report on sexual advances); Spanish; safety precautions for the hurricane season; anti-xenophobic actions as well as candlemaking and painting exercises.
At a community level, the Freely Give Foundation Easter camp served to launch their homework centre for community members and a schooling programme for Venezuelan refugees and migrants. As it is currently, mainly private institutions and initiatives provide schooling to Venezuelan refugee and migrant children in Trinidad and Tobago. This contrasts with the recent provision by the Trinidad and Tobago government to allow the return to physical, in-person schooling for all eligible children in April. As a result, would be the first time in two years that school-aged children would physically attend school.