Sr Roberta speaks with a fire officer about the situation as a police officer passes by.

However, due to the extent of the damage and the imminent East Port-of-Spain Development, we have been advised by the Ministry of Social Development not to repair or renovate this building. Therefore we are scouting for new sites in Port-of-Spain for construction of a new Centre.

Credo Centre’s Present Needs

Until we can relocate to a new permanent location we need to provide accessible facilities in Port-of-Spain for the:

• Drop-in and residential facility for socially displaced young men
• Developmental programmes and activities that serve the needs of our residents and their families
• Support services for the families of our residents and those in need in the community
• Administrative office for the Centre’s activities

The burnt out Credo Centre on Nelson Street.

How Can Individuals Help

Donations to Credo Foundation for Justice: Republic Bank Limited, Promenade Centre, Account Number – 0905 778 356 01

Cheques may be sent to Holy Faith Sisters, 17 Warren Street, Woodbrook

Donations of items necessary to the Centre’s operations and that will meet the residents’ needs:

• Puzzle books and educational games
• Stationery for students and the office
• Sports equipment (e.g. tennis balls, cricket bats, footballs and pumps)
• powdered milk
• laundry detergent
• cheddar cheese

How Can Companies Help

Once the details have been finalised the Board of Management will produce a formal proposal outlining the construction project. We would then invite corporate citizens to be our partners in the purchase of land and the construction of a new Centre.

THANK YOU

We are very, very grateful to all those who have supported us. Thank you to all those who have called, brought supplies, offered donations, visited us, offered advice and in so many ways been good friends and family to us at this time.

Thank you so much.

We are thankful that the children are safe. They are coping well and adjusting to the changes. We are working together to maintain a positive and - as much as we can - a structured environment in order to continue to meet their education and development goals.

We continue to be committed to being aware of and responding to the needs of those who are vulnerable in our community. We look forward to the new possibilities that will emerge as we face this present challenge.

In the midst of this tragic scenario, there is one issue which we as a congregation of Sisters committed to promoting the dignity of women, would like to raise. It concerns the media response to the “Lewd Dancing Affair”. Eleven women and 25 men appeared before the court on various charges arising from the raid on a hotel in Chase Village. Newspapers carried clear pictures of no less than eight of the women, yet the only man to appear was the proprietor.

We are not seeking the public exposure and humiliation of either men or women, but simply calling into question the disproportionate number of women whose faces were displayed in the newspapers.
The fact remains that many women, as heads of households, take exploitative jobs e.g. prostitution, “exotic dancing” etc, in order to support their children.

It is also a fact that they find employment in these exploitative areas only because there is a market for them.
We do not seek to engage here in a moral discussion about such establishments, but to challenge the media to a less sensational, less discriminatory portrayal of these issues.

The handling of the recent court appearances merely served to humiliate the women involved and to perpetuate the kinds of stereotypes which contribute to violence against women.

SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAITH and
CREDO FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE
Express, October 13, 1999

Whether we are affected by the image of the Christ Child, or by the secular consumerist view that “Christmas is for children,” it is the image of a child that dominates our consciousness this season.

These next few days will see great shopping and spending – whether or not we can afford it! In Port of Spain, in particular, you will pass many children “hustling.” Children who live and/or work on the streets know that this is a particular lucrative time for “hustling.”

While it is difficult to pass any human being in distress, in particular a child, we would like to suggest that the kinder, but harder, thing to do is not to give money to them but to give to people who work to get these children off the streets or to any organisation which works to alleviate poverty.

The reality is that as long as “hustling” is lucrative children will continue to take to the streets, where they are most likely to be exposed to drugs and prostitution. Short-term generosity often works against long-term systematic change.

Systematic change is the vision of the Credo Foundation for Justice and the Living Water Community. We work in partnership to try and tackle the problem of “street children” in Port of Spain. Credo Centre is a day centre for children who live and/or work on the streets. Marian House, Henry Street, has a special section where children who are homeless can sleep at night, with a view to getting them into the main residence at Marian House.

We seek to move the young people away from the street culture through friendship, education and counselling. Every time you give money to a begging child you are, in fact, facilitating their staying on the streets. We ask instead, that you encourage them to come to one of our centres listed below.
“Hustling” as a way of life is a sure road to vagrancy for these children. The poignant image of the begging child will give way to the familiar image of the begging adult which both frightens and annoys us. We appeal to you not to give money to children on the street. Such short term acts of kindness serve more to soothe our own consciences than to solve the problems of children living and working on the streets of our nation.

CREDO FOUNDATION FOR JUSTICE
Sunday Guardian

When the Church gathers for prayer and worship, our language is almost exclusively male. Our prayers and hymns rarely acknowledge that women are in the congregation – not indeed, that they often constitute the majority of the congregation.
Sometimes the celebrant says “Dear brethren” and often our hymns sing of “Sons of God” and “life for all men, alleluia!”

In the language of the Church, women simply do not exist. We are told that sexist terms such as “man”, “brothers” and “sons” are generic and that the issue of language is unimportant. However with many women throughout the world we ask:

1. Who decides which terms are generic?
2. If language is unimportant why not try it the other way around, since women outnumber men in most church congregations?

We are not suggesting that female language replace male language. We do not seek to replace one kind of chauvinism with another. We are suggesting that a more inclusive vocabulary be used.

Last month the United Nation’s conference on women held in Beijing, China, highlighted the many issues concerning women which demand our attention, e.g. poverty, violence against women, illiteracy, prostitution and pornography. Why waste time worrying about language?

This language must not be trivialised. Language shapes reality. Language forms thoughts and attitudes. Sexist language reduces a woman to the status of a non-person. When a woman’s personhood is not recognised she is more vulnerable to exclusion, exploitation, abuse and degradation. Language does matter.
As the Archbishop points out, it will take time for a proper revision of our liturgical language. Change requires effort that may be messy at times. Such effort and “messiness” may move cynics to advocate a return to the use of male generic terms in the name of linguistic efficiency. However we must begin to move from exclusive language as a concrete sign of the radical inclusiveness of the reign of God which is celebrated in our worship.

As a help in that journey from exclusion to inclusion, we request that the Catholic News lead the way by using inclusive language when publishing the Sunday readings.

Holy Faith Sisters, Couva
Catholic News, 22nd October, 1995

Once again, we call on all people of goodwill who value life, especially Catholics, to work, this year, for an end to hangings in our country.

Last year we gained fame throughout the world for ten executions. Any one who was associated in any way with these ten hangings felt brutalised by the experience.

None of us were untouched either through the complicity of silence or support, or through the pain involved in the struggle against them and the subsequent horror when they were carried out. One way or another each person in this country was affected and what happened is irreversible.

On January 14, 1700, twenty-two Amerindian men were executed in St Joseph as a result of an uprising. This month marks the 300th anniversary of this brutal execution by the Spanish colonial government. Three hundred years later, in a post-colonial world, we continue to teach that killing is wrong by more killing.
The death penalty does not honour the memory of victims, nor does it bring healing or closure to their families. The death penalty does not break the cycle of violence, because it does not address the underlying causes. It does not deter violent crimes. The death penalty does teach our children that the way to respond to violence and brutality is with violence and brutality.

We appeal that we begin the journey towards abolition, by marking January 14 in some way – by having a moment of silence and prayer in memory of the Amerindians – by remembering all victims of violent crime – by praying for an end to violence of all forms, in particular, the death penalty – by doing some non-violent gesture or choosing not to retaliate when provoked.

Until the end of 2000, the Coliseum, the site of terror and bloodshed in imperial Rome, will be illuminated with bright gold light for two days each time an execution anywhere in the world is suspended or commuted or a nation abolishes the death penalty. It would be wonderful if during this Jubilee year the Coliseum could be lit up by the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

Credo Foundation for Justice
And Holy Faith Sisters
Catholic News, January 9th, 2000

His judgement highlights the fact that the stipulations by Trinidad and Tobago’s Prison Rules 1863 for the bare essentials of a humane prison stay, are routinely ignored on Death Row in 1998. All prisoners, including convicted killers are entitled to humane conditions and we should be concerned that prisoners on Death Row are deprived of basic sanitary conditions, natural light and “airing”.

It has been said that one measure of the justice of a society is the condition of its prisons. What do long periods of waiting in the overcrowded Remand Yard and the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners on Death Row indicate about the measure of justice in our society?

We continue to stand in opposition to the Death Penalty. It has not been proven that it acts as a deterrent. We publicly sympathise with those whose lives have been traumatised by violent crime, in particular with the family of Chandranath Maharaj. The Death Penalty, however, is not a solution to the problem of violent crime.
We believe that the Death Penalty institutionalises revenge and brutality, reduces the possibility of repentance and rehabilitation, and falsely promises closure to the family and friends of the victims. We repeat our appeal for a change in the law to allow for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

We call for the abolition of the inhumane conditions on Death Row and for the abolition of the Death Penalty itself.

Credo Foundation for Justice and
The Sisters of the Holy Faith

Catholic News, August 9th, 1998

Credo Foundation for Justice

Credo Foundation for Justice and Holy Faith Sisters, 1999