Six years ago, The Cotton Tree Foundation was established by a group of Trinidadian citizens for the benefit of the residents of Belmont, East Dry River, St Ann's, Cascade and their environs.
A community census commissioned by the foundation, which was concerned about the increasing number of disadvantaged people in our society, identified extensive poverty in the above areas, along with high unemployment, especially among young adults.
Despite many obstacles, the group of determined friends and colleagues, headed by attorney-at-law Desmond Allum S.C., have survived as has their namesake, the single, giant silk cotton tree which stands where the Belmont Circular Road meets the Queen's Park Savanah.
It is said that this tree, was one of a species which long ago covered the whole of the northern part of the Savannah. The lone cotton tree, by dint of its survival in a less than hospitable environment, bears silent witness to the history of our twin island state, and as an example of strength and endurance, serves as the symbol for The Cotton Tree Foundation.
At a meeting in April 1993, it was greed to formalise the organisation, of which the main goal was to help alleviate some of the more pressing socio-economic problems affecting the client communities. The concept was further developed by Allum, who at the time was the Member of Parliament for the St Ann's area, as a non-profitable, charitable trust, under whose auspices local and overseas funding would be sought to finance the establishment of the various projects proposed as the Foundation's activities to meet the communities needs.
In 1994, the Trinidad and Tobago government leased the entire Spanish Acres property at upper St Ann's to the Foundation, at a nominal fee under a long term arrangement. Spanish Acres, which sits on a seven acre lot of land, was formerly the two-building residence of the late Sir Grantley Adams, Prime Minister of the defunct West Indies Federation.
A visit to the property leaves one bewildered that a project so well conceptualised and planned by the Foundation, has not been long brought to fruition because of lack of funding through much goverment bureaucracy and red tape.
The Foundation's major thrust is to provide early childhood education with pre-school accommodation for thirty children between the ages two and five, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Servol. Certain specifications have to be met in order to access World Bank funding. "Our government is going to be involved with sort of backing up, recurrent expenditure etc" explained Allum.
"And although all the government departments have been very, very supportive, nothing is happening with the provision of funds. One funding agency, the European Commission Delegation in Port of Spain, stands ready to assist, but is still waiting for the government to say the magic words: we have no objection."
Like the lone Silk Cotton Tree, the Foundation's board of directors, of Allum, who is founder/patron/chairman, Justice P.L.U. Cross, Charmaine Baptiste and Allison Demas; the management committee of Megan Hopkyn-Rees, Esla Lynch, Jackie Lazarus, Allyson Hamel-Smith, Kaspar Pold, Albert Chow and Garvin Simonette; and its day to day administrator June Cartar, continue to persevere in the name of the poor and disenfranchised in the communities, sharing the conviction that non-partisan long term solutions must be identified, instituted and administered.
Through its own fund raising and with help from corporate sponsors, the Foundation has been able to complete a well-lit basketball court which is in daily/nightly use, and to complete administrative offices where adult literacy will be looked after in the evenings, above the planned pre-school area, There has been some delay with the actual pre-school, which should have opened its doors earlier this month. "We now hope to open by the Easter term 2000" says Allum "the teachers are ready."
The larger building sits idly by, in ramshackle state, waiting for the necessary funding to refurbish ten rooms for training and workshops in cottage industries, and the main community centre. Plans to recruit tutors have already been finalised, "some will be voluntary, some we hope to be able to pay for since we have a budget and everything sorted out" says Allum.
"We have a core of such very dedicated people,women particularly. My experience in my involvement in public life is that were it not for the women you could not get anything done, the women are the movers throughout the community."
Projects which have been completed or are ongoing with positive results include the creation of an Urban Data Bank of the communites to be served. Levels of employment, unemployment, education, skill sets, income and other demographic data by households and individuals, have been identified with a view to use the information to match skill sets to employment opportunities, job creation, education, training, planning Foundation activities and longer term income distribution balancing projects.
Ghostwriter, a concept of the Children's Television Workshop in the USA in association with the School's Television Division of the BBC in the U.K., is a television-based multi-media literacy project designed to make the printed word exciting and relevant to children 7-10 years old, especially those who are economically disadvantaged. The Foundation's pilot School Outreach Project focused on six primary schools.
The School Improvement Programme - Comer Process- established in 1995 in nine schools, reached approximately 4000 children, is on- going. The Comer Process, developed by the Child Study Unit of Yale University in the USA has a longitudinal proven track record in the USA of bringing about virtually a complete reversal of functioning of the most disadvantaged inner-city schools.
You can help The Cotton Tree Foundation in its quest " to create change through education" by donations in the form of equipment, building materials, cash, voluntary human resources, volunteer advisory services, and support items, such as, food, clothing and medical supplies/first aid, through Trinity Chambers, 98 Duke Street, Port of Spain. Telephone (868) 623-5657: Fax (868) 627-8419.