(PRESS RELEASE) — On Friday, July 3, 2020, the office of the Parliamentary Representative for Soufriere/Fond St.Jacques Hon. Herod Stanislas organized an anti-violence peace treaty meeting between rival groups in the community at the Cool Breeze Conference Room from 4 p.m.
This event was held under the theme ‘We are one- say no to guns’ and was led by a small delegation of community leaders in an effort to address and find solutions in order to mitigate and curb the recent spate of gun violence in the community.
Part of the delegation included Pastor Kendall Augustin of the Christ is the Answer Church; Janny Joseph, director of gender relations at the Ministry of Education; Corporal Marbert Octave of the Soufriere Criminal Investigative Division; Charkar Esnard, president of Team Unite youth group and Johnson Simon, youth development Officer at the Soufriere Foundation.
The parliamentary rep. and other speakers addressed the gathering and provided words of encouragement, upliftment, motivation, and ways to better channel their energies in a more positive direction.
Ms. Esnard spoke about her personal experience in losing her younger brother to violence and how it has changed her life and her family and pleaded with the young men to look to a more positive direction in their lives.
Members of the different groups pledged to the gathering that they would put an end to the dispute and work together.
The minister said: “We have made great strides today in resolving parts of the issues surrounding the violence, it is not a done deal as we will continue to monitor and do everything within our power to ensure we do our best to bring some sort of normalcy back to the town. We continue to strive to provide programs, employment, and opportunities for our youth, and in the coming weeks we will roll out more initiatives to better strengthen and prepare our youth towards a more prosperous life and goal-oriented future. As a community, we believe in our youth and look to the future with the hope that they will prevail against all odds and make the best of all opportunities presented to them.”
SOURCE: Soufriere Foundation
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