Red Cross launches Children's Carnival

The TT Red Cross Society launched its 64th Children's Carnival on Wednesday at the Port of Spain Lions Cultural Centre with this year's theme: "For the love of children."

Red Cross president Jill De Bourg told Newsday the Children's Carnival will be on February 15 at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, starting at 10am. Registration is open now.

"We hope to get back to the day of coming to the Savannah with your picnic basket and your family, where the stands are filled to capacity and our children get to see our greatest show on Earth," De Bourg said.

In 2019 the Red Cross had approximately 200 registered bands and single masqueraders, but only made $3,640 in profits. De Bourg said it cut its budget in half, from $700,000 to $350,000, by reducing marketing expenses. She assured the same quality would be maintained for Carnival 2020.

The profits will be used to fund the Red Cross Youth Trailblazers Club in secondary schools. The Red Cross is working on a pilot programme in partnership with the Ministry of Education for 36 secondary schools.

While all forms are welcome, De Bourg hopes the club will engage students from forms one to three. The programme has three modules: agents of behaviour change, team emergency response training for teens and vulnerability capacity assessment.

"This means we are giving them (the students) resilience skills within their schools, which would bridge the gap with resilience in the youth."

De Bourg hopes the Youth Trailblazers Club will complement the geography and environmental syllabus by teaching about environmental conservation and climate change to help prepare the students for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).