The boys at the Liberty Lodge Boys Training Centre can now boast of having a new and improved environment for learning, thanks to the Mustique Charitable Trust.
This, as the Trust underwrote the cost of refurbishing a room to be used as a classroom for the Centre’s remedial education programme.
During a ceremony on Tuesday 21st June, at the liberty Lodge Centre, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mobilization, Social Development, Family and Gender Affairs – Catherine De Freitas, thanked the Mustique Charitable Trust for their assistance and commended them for responding to an essential need of the Centre.
The trust donated $5,675.85 to assist in purchasing materials and supplies such as books, chairs, box seats and fans.
De Freitas promised that the Ministry will continue to support remedial education at the institution and that the classroom will be used to its fullest capacity.
Administrative Director of the Mustique Charitable Trust – Dularie Malcolm, in delivering remarks, highlighted the Trust’s history of assisting needy causes, and thanked the artisans, residents/boys at the Liberty Lodge for their help in creating the classroom setting.
Assistant Project Director Kenroy Boucher delivered the project overview. He said that work commenced in December 2020 but there were setbacks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano. The project was eventually completed in May 2022 with all the works being directed by artisan Orlan Bacchus and effected by the boys at the Centre.
“Part of the project was to construct a small library for the boys and we are looking at getting some books to fill the library for the boys as we go forward,” said Boucher.
The new classroom, Boucher assured, will go a long way in making the atmosphere a lot more comfortable for the boys at the Centre.
The Assistant Project Director also shared that the institution does not only focus on academics. In fact, they have already started a poultry farm with 100 broiler chicks, to which they hope to add a complement of layers. Both meat and eggs are to be sold to the public.
The Liberty Lodge Boys Centre was established in 1969 with the mission of creating a safe, secure space conducive for learning and productivity for vulnerable and at risk youth, between the ages of 7 to 16.
Source: Kenville Horne Vincentian