Santa and crew bring cheer to schools in Princes Town

Sascha Wilson

Senior Reporter

sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt

Cheers and laughter erupted at the Princes Town Presbyterian No 2 Primary School on Wednesday as Santa Claus, Mrs Claus and his Elves rolled into the school behind a truck.

Santa had just come from delivering toys and treat bags to students of another school—Princes Town Methodist Primary School—as the Rapidfire Kidz Foundation and UNi TnT held their annual School Christmas treat.

In total, 523 toys and 523 treat bags were distributed to pupils in both schools and another 130 treat bags were distributed randomly by the Santa entourage en route to the schools. Members of the T&T Breakdance Organisation also left children awe-struck with their thrilling performances. The pupils also participated in an entertaining dance competition.

Ratiram, who dressed as Santa Claus, said this year marked their 12th year of the Christmas event.

While the event was focused on spreading cheer, Ratiram expressed alarm over statistics from the TTPS’ Special Victims Department. It stated that in the last five years, there were 14,296 domestic violence reports, while 4,667 women and girls were victims of sexual violence between 2018 and 2022. Ratiram said the statistics painted a sad story.

He said it showed that men do not know how to value and respect women and girls. While acknowledging that men were also victims of domestic violence, he said domestic violence incidents against women and girls were much higher. Ratiram said men must not use their physical strength to oppress and bully women but rather to protect them.

“We as a society need to teach our children, especially our boy children, that they have a solemn duty to protect women, to protect girls.”

Like every Trinidad and Tobago citizen, he said, his Christmas wish is that violence in T&T would end.

“Parents in particular need to step up to the plate. Fathers need to be fathers to their boy children, in particular, fathers have to be present. Parents have to spend time with their children and not be on their phones and devices all day. Parents have to parent, teachers have to teach. We as a society and a community have to uplift the children and teenagers in particular in T&T.” Ratiram lamented, however, that the world is in more turmoil than ever as children continue to be slaughtered in Gaza in Palestine, the Ukraine war, and in Sudan.

“Some of the poorest people in the world have been displaced from their homes, hundreds of thousands of them. We need to look at peace in the world again. The world today is riddled with soldiers but soldiers of war what the world really needs is soldiers of peace and that is my wish for planet Earth today,” he said.

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