Barataria/San Juan MP launches student help desk, tree planting initiative

Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein has launched a student help desk at his office to assist primary and secondary school students. The initiative offers free printing, e-mail and internet services on an appointment basis.

Hosein said he launched the initiative following the announcement by the Ministry of Education (MoE) that classes would be conducted online and there were thousands of students without devices or internet connectivity.

“I decided to open up my office so all the students who don’t have those facilities to access online learning, that we could try our best at my office to make it available to them. At this time, we don’t want any students to be left behind, we want that each and every one has an equal opportunity to access the internet for printing material, for the syllabus, so no-one is disadvantaged by this and we are doing all we can in my office to ensure the students are well taken care of in Barataria/San Juan.”

He said the facilities would only be accessible through appointment to comply with the covid19 regulations with respect to the number of people who can gather at any point in time.

“We can’t have one person using the facilities for the entire day because we want to give everybody who needs access an opportunity and we will be helping them with the printing and other facilities in terms of what is available to them through the MoE and any other digital platforms.”

The help desk facilities will be available from Monday to Friday between 8 am and 4 pm. To make an appointment, call 748-3800 or 674-4788.

On Saturday, Hosein also launched a food tree planting initiative across his constituency.

“The trees we planted were breadfruit trees, and we partnered with Raoul Bermudez, who would have provided the trees. Nafeesa Mohammed assisted in the co-ordination of the exercise. These trees are going to be planted strategically throughout the constituency so in the next few years when the trees start to bear it will be a community tree where people from the community can benefit from what we have planted. While there is always the issue of praedial larceny, the trees are strategically placed so the people in the community have responsibility to take care of them.”

Hosein said his constituents can look out for more initiatives of this sort.

“We’re going to try to make Barataria/San Juan one of the premier constituencies in TT. As the youngest member of Parliament currently, I want to try my best to serve the people of Barataria/San Juan to the best of my abilities using creative and innovative ways, especially in light of the covid19 pandemic.”