00:00A partnership between the Samaritan Movement and the Canadian High Commission is being expanded through the Horizons program at the
00:07St. Dominic's Children's Home in Belmont.
00:09The Samaritan Movement, an initiative of the Archdiocese of Portia, Spain, focuses on trauma-informed care, mental health, and emotional
00:18well-being programs for children, families, and communities.
00:22And the whole idea behind this initiative is to connect the diplomatic community to some of the most vulnerable and
00:28marginalized communities in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:30Specifically, the homes was the area where we wanted to start with.
00:34We've been doing trainings up at the homes with caregivers, and therefore we said, let's take it a step further.
00:39Let's try and see how best we can inspire the residents at the home, the residents that are in care
00:45at this particular moment as well.
00:47And this was actually born organically out of conversations that we would have had with the diplomatic community.
00:54We have about 13 ambassadors who meet regularly with ourselves, the Samaritan Movement, and His Grace, Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon,
01:01who of course has sanctioned this and given his blessings for this to go forward.
01:05Canadian High Commissioner Michael Callen says the visit was intended to create meaningful engagement with young people outside of formal
01:13diplomatic settings.
01:14We're excited to just basically meet them on their terms and just spend a little bit of time together without
01:21a lot of protocol, without a lot of a heavy agenda,
01:25but partially just to show them that we're part of their community, they're part of our community, and that we
01:32care.
01:33Organizers say the program grew out of wider efforts to strengthen support systems for children's homes
01:38and improve trauma-informed care for both children and caregivers.
01:43One of the reasons why I came to Trinidad and Tobago three years ago was to respond to the first
01:49homes report
01:50that came out about the abuse of the children's homes, and we've really accompanied caregivers over these past, you know,
01:57really four years to train them in real safeguarding, but also to become more trauma-informed,
02:03and it's a great privilege now to celebrate the achievement.
02:08The Samaritan Movement says it hopes to expand the Horizons program to other children's homes across the country.
02:15Aksha Galston, TV6 News.
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