TTEC disconnection - TnT Mirror.com

TTEC disconnection - no electricity in two-storey Adolescent Mothers building!
*By DERSON CHARLES, Scarborough:*
IT is four weeks since TnT Mirror reported exclusively that a Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) disconnection crew had swooped down and cut the electricity to a building, which houses the Programme for Adolescent Mothers at Allfields Trace in Lowlands. The situation has however, remained the same even though the programme re-opened with a fresh intake of young mothers and their babies this week. When Mirror visited the area last Tuesday, the distinct red tags could be seen on the TTEC metre box.	The building that houses the Programme for Adolescent Mothers.
There are also reports of a critical shortage of staff to run the programme. Mirror was told that several officers, including a registered nurse who was attached to the programme, have resigned their positions while some are still on vacation leave. And with no electricity in the sprawling two-storey building, workers are forced to leave at half day each day. Efforts to contact the Programme Officer Sonia Whitlock about the situation were futile. Mirror was told that she was in Trinidad. The unique adolescent mothers’ programme offers a range of life coping skills and services for teenaged mothers and their babies. Some have been able to re-enter the secondary school system after dropping out to give birth or are given job opportunities upon the completion of their six-month period of training. There have been some disturbing reports, however, about the direction and effectiveness of the programme, even as plans for its expansion have been projected in the 2006/7 budgetary estimates of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). According to a top official in the Division of Health and Social Services, the programme, though laudable, is not meeting its overall objectives as there seems to be a high rate of second pregnancies among the young mothers, who had completed the programme. “It seems rather perplexing that so many of these young girls after being exposed to the training skills in the programme, are still exercising the choice of a second pregnancy,” remarked the official. “I think there is an urgent need to re-assess the entire programme to ensure that it meets its overall objectives in providing these young mothers a second chance in self-development,” added the official. Meanwhile, the official confirmed reports about an exodus of social workers from the Division of Social Services recently. At least three persons have left the division to take up positions in another Division of the THA. “We are running on a skeletal staff at the Division of Social Services,” declared the concerned official.

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