The plight continues in Canouan

Tue, Oct 4. 2011

Editor: Another school year is here again. It’s all good for most, but it is very sad for the parents in Canouan. We continue to struggle. Can you imagine being separated from your ten and eleven-year-old child? These children continue to face so many challenges at their tender age.{{more}} You may ask why some of the children have to change homes so frequently, and as a result they are not able to be fully settled. Some are not getting proper food to eat. Some do not have rights in these homes. In some cases, it’s as though they become live-in maids.

With all these distractions and injustices, it causes the children not to be able to function properly in school, because they are unhappy. As a result, some of these children never pass and their scholarships, given by Canouan Island Council (CIC), are taken away without proper investigation. Where is the heart and love for our children? You can only know what they are going through when you step into their shoes. Some of these people with whom the children are staying on the mainland treat them like they are aliens. They are children just trying to get an education. Money is a must, but it is not all there is. In addition, parents do not work for much on the island. Some have more than one child on the mainland, plus a house in Canouan to maintain. Mr. Prime Minister, you made a speech on education, around the Common Entrance period, that parents must be there for their children, making sure they do their homework. Now Sir, tell me, how is this possible for the children from Canouan studying in St. Vincent, who are separated from their parents?

Mr. PM, a country’s most valuable resource is its people, and they are most powerful when they are well educated. We cannot have an international airport without the manpower to work and operate the machinery. We cannot continue having the people of Canouan at the bottom of the working ladder on the Resort. We want to produce managers. Mr. Prime Minister, do something please! Do not spite the children because some of the parents have a mindset where voting is concerned. This might actually be your chance of winning the votes of the new generation of voters in the Southern Grenadines…Who knows?

PM, come to Canouan right now and you will see the number of children who dropped out of secondary school because they were ill-treated by the people with whom they were staying. In addition, it is too much of an expense for the parents. Sad! Sad! Sad! Start the Canouan Secondary School now, Mr. PM! Mr. Saladino, SIF and other able citizens have already put their cards on the table a long time ago; only you are lagging. PM did I hear you say you love children? If that is so, then you need to love those from Canouan too.

It is a pity we cannot take our houses across the sea.

A Concerned Parent