We must save our children

THE EDITOR: Heart-wrenching, immoral, nefarious and mundane are powerful in their conviction yet ineffable to reveal how we really feel about those acts of violence toward our nation’s children. The horror beset us as their blood pours throughout the land.

How many more must die? How many more protests, placards and vigils to expose the guilty conscience of these persecutors? What again must we do to drag these vicious persecutors to face the full brunt of the law? The children, what about their future? What is life? They deserved to live. All of us are deserving of the rights and protections to life.

Other thought-provoking and unsettling revelations creep out of dark and inconspicuous places. Though peace escapes us upon learning of these ills, do remember the names. Each cries out for justice. The families and our nation desperately desire to heal.

These countless names still have us shaken and ought to be echoed throughout the length, breath and depths of TT: Sean Luke, Tecia Henry, Amy Annamunthodo, Kimani Francis, Akil Chambers and Kylie Maloney. There is no real justifiable reason for killing them.

Policymakers and activists, I encourage you by your impassioned advocacies to continue and support our government in putting forward strategic measures for communities to eliminate violence against children.

The plea made by the Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Gender and Child Affairs, Ayanna Webster-Roy, that "children ought not to become collateral damage...," is the cry of the nation. Let us collectively encourage those to break the silence and take a united stance against those injustices. Together we can transform what was meant to enervate our society. Save our children. They are ours.

Ancilla Ashley Kirby

Port of Spain