Promoting peace - say no to gun violence
PROMOTING PEACE: SAY NO TO GUN VIOLENCE
One of Rotary's 6 areas of focus is that of peace and conflict resolution and on the 07th May 2017 the Rotary Club of Princes Town partnered with Caron Asgarali, author and survivor of gun violence to assist with the hosting of project RARE in its efforts to promote peace.
Project RARE which is geared towards Raising Awareness on the Ripple Effect of gun violence and targets our youth in particular was hosted at the St. Joseph's Convent San Fernando auditorium and was open to members of the public.
The project covered the statistics as to gun violence and it's prevalence in Trinidad and Tobago and internationally and the physical effects, emotional effects, financial effects in coping with the aftermath of gun violence whether as a survivor, or as a family member, friend or colleague of a survivor.
Ms. Asgarali opened the programme with a poem that detailed the incident of her injuries and the Club's in-house Doctor Carlyn Rajnarinesingh covered in detail the effects of gun shot injuries physically with photographs that brought home to the audience how traumatic such an injury really is.
President Debbie Roopchand called for the audience to reject conflict as a way of life and to embrace peace, sharing with them that as Rotarians through service projects we take action to address the underlying causes of conflict, some of which are poverty, inequality, ethnic tension, lack of access to education, and unequal distribution of resources and gave live examples of such work.
She highlighted gun violence internationally citing the 1996 Dunblane school massacre in the UK where 16 school children were murdered and the 2012 horrific shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown USA that killed at least 26 people, including 20 6 year old school children, noting that President Obama later described hearing the news of the Newtown shooting as his worse day as President.
In her call for peace she also gave examples at home in Trinidad and Tobago where in 2016, 15-year-old school student Joel Huggins was gunned down and in the said 2016, 15-year-old student Mark Richards and 17-year-old student Denilson Smith were both pulled out of a taxi and executed at gunpoint and encouraged the young people present in the audience to adopt peace as a way of life.
In closing President Debbie left the audience to digest the words of Eleanor Roosevelt who once said: “It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it" and she called for all present to work at achieving peace.
.JPG)