DAVID SCARLETT
As a minority, Hispanic families have required assistance as they integrate into TT’s culture and everyday life. To aid in that initiative, the Rotaract Club of San Fernando South (RCSS) stepped up to the cause for the development of the young Latin American generation.
RCSS recently concluded its outreach programme for Hispanic children,
Sí Tú Puedes (Yes You Can), on March 25. It was the second part of a project that RCSS began in September 2022 that targeted Spanish-speaking migrant children.
The children benefited from English (reading, writing and speaking), football, makeup and crochet classes.
The English and crochet classes were held at ASJA Boys’ College in San Fernando on Saturdays and Sundays. The children and their families were receptive and supportive of the initiative since its inception and are delighted with the opportunity to learn and develop their skills and abilities. ASJA Boys’ College was also pleased to be a part of the project.
The makeup classes were held at the Arete Institute of Science – another school that willingly supported the initiative – on Monday afternoons.
However, the club’s miniature football academy was its major investment. The football sessions were held on Saturdays at Skinner Park, San Fernando. RCSS collaborated with Collette Morgan, who served as coach of the academy.
Morgan, the founder and owner of Workout Warriors Outdoor Fitness, is a former TT footballer and a former captain of the University of Trinidad and Tobago women’s team. With her degree in kinesiology, she is also a personal trainer and Level C football coach licensed by the TT Football Association (TTFA).
Her club Workout Warriors Outdoor Fitness – founded in 2019 – is a fitness group that promotes health and fitness and does community work in and around Los Bajos.
The group of children RCSS fostered were aged from eight to 15. They were eager to play the game they love and assisted each other in speaking English.
With Morgan’s experience and expertise, she helped to develop the children’s footballing abilities in drilling passing, dribbling and shooting, along with game situations.
The club’s community service director, Jessica Ankatiah, was exceptionally pleased with the project and its overall success. In an interview with Newsday, she said, “Our club’s Community Service Committee was engaged in a literacy project last year for illiterate adults in the San Fernando area. In developing the project, we believed it was important to have inclusion for all and we engaged the Spanish(-speaking) migrant population.
“Many of these kids are not in schools and they have come to our country under tragic circumstances. Bearing this in mind, we wanted to do our part in providing them with skills to become more integrated and to contribute to society.”
She said football in particular was introduced as a means of socialisation, “But also as an opportunity to improve their skills, as many of them want to become professional football players. A happy and motivated child is the
