Young faces lit up with energy and excitement, hearts filled with spirit and inspired by creation, cameras filming, maxis lined up outside, bursts of song, camera lights flashing, school principals, volunteers, UWI film and video students, supportive sponsors … as THE GOOD NEWS went out to all the highways and byways of the nation and gathered its students from all the places where it had taken root over the past six months – from Matelot to Mayaro, Toco to Tunapuna, Curepe to Cumana, Rio Claro to St Augustine, passing by Champs Fleurs, up St Joseph.

The banners were flying proclaiming the message emblazoned on their logo: THE GOOD NEWS … See it! Say It! Be it!
What was happening … why this excitement?

It was graduation day Saturday, December 15, for 54 youth who had journeyed since May in a programme of communications technology as God’s Good News reached densely populated areas and distant rural youth who so lacked healthy activities to nurture their human and spiritual development, who have little or no way to enter into the abundance of today’s opportunities – a big one of which is technology.

It was about their growth in self-esteem and a new human dignity as participation opened up for all as God intended it.

The Good News project teaches video production skills, trains youth as directors, reporters and coordinators, then creates news segments on values that will be aired on national television.

So how did all this get started? A newly formed NGO - The Social Justice Group of T&T is the champion of this innovative concept, which emerged from an idea of the group’s President Maureen Arneaud.

Touched by the tragic death of little Sean Luke and then researching the link between poverty and violence, Ms Arneaud saw the need and the opportunity to do something for those youths who could not access opportunities as some of their peers might be able to.

While working with students of the Matelot Community RC School in January 2007, she noticed that the attitudes of the more challenging students changed from aggressive and undisciplined to curious and interested each time she pulled out her video camera.

The idea for the project was born. When acting principal of the Matelot Community RC school, Kent Jardine requested a long-term programme to help in the children’s development, she summoned the members of the group, discussed it with teachers, village elders and the local parish priest, and included local groups such as the Toco Old Boys & Old Girls Association, the Cumana Parish Council and had members of the village council sit in on a meeting. The Good News project was born.

Officially partnering with us in this project, as greatly appreciated sponsors/benefactors are – Algico, BHP Billiton, BGTT, First Citizens, Prestige Holdings/KFC, Sagicor and the EU through the RMPF programme, Tacarigua branch. 

When did this all start?

Starting in May, the project has wrought its transformation as bored, silent, hooded looks in many of the students six months ago, changed into youth approaching professional level equipment briskly and snapping out tripod legs, stabilising cameras, checking sound levels with each other, deciding who will be the boom operator, who will interview.

A young 13 year old girl assuming her chosen position (“I want to direct, Miss!”) as director of a shoot, and telling older teens on camera, “Your head room is not good!” and, “Reporter, remember you must hold your smile and your pose for a few seconds after you finish to allow footage for editing, so don’t turn away as soon as you finish!” and after a quick check to see that tape is rolling and audio levels are within the acceptable range, she starts the 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 countdown and signs the interviewer that he’s “on”.

Sponsor representative Mark Regis (right) congratulates Reynaldo Ramnanan

Life struggles, sense of aggression and feelings of isolation disappeared as the young people entered slowly then joyously into the world of communications technology, finding a new space to BE and a new way to “become” … even to find themselves ... to find new options to live.

As one young participant told NGO Vice-President Anthony Beharrysingh, “If it wasn’t for this programme, I’d be running drugs all now so, but now I see I can get into video, run my own business.”

The vehicle for this project is video production skills, but it is not the only thing that is addressed.  There is a strong human development and life skills component.

Today’s session might find us in Tunapuna working on the Total Person Concept with the key issue being spirituality as the core, the glue that holds a person together, the secret to being fully human. Then we’d have the day’s technical lesson on working in front of the camera.

The next session might find us at the Rio Claro project taking a look at the values of our programme and Ronald Rolheiser’s explanation of the values of the world and their power to entrap – the restlessness that craves instant gratification, immediacy and impatience – leading to road rage, violence, and more if not gratified etc.  Then once more we’d be out in the streets interviewing people.

Foundation of values

A foundation of values drives the programme and forms the basis of the interviews the young people were trained to do – interviews on the streets of Tunapuna, in front of Arthur’s bar and grocery in Rampanalgas, in Trincity Mall, or the market in Rio Claro – as they explore the public’s opinion on the values that seem to be disappearing in Trinidad life today.

North East Area coordinator Adrian Watson (at right) looks on proudly.

On the technical side, they learned to be camera operators, reporters, directors, coordinators. They learned to set up the professional level cameras, use the proper cabling for the audio connections, use the boom, lapel pin and cordless mikes.

They can walk in, set up the equipment and do a shoot independent of their trainers. They have shot interviews with the public taking opinion polls on the street, they have interviewed people in the market, acquired a theme song which was given to them by 3 Canal, they have interviewed Kees Defienthaller on values, and learned about the CCHR – The Caribbean Center for Human Rights, doing interviews on different programmes they run.

They have sat in on the studio taping of The Rising Stars and met studio professionals, they have visited sponsors’ head offices and sat in corporate conference rooms, learning about banking services and why it is important to set goals and start a savings account…And in all this they have grown, have expanded their understanding of the world and its possibilities, have seen our vision for them... and they have started to spread their wings.

And THE GOOD NEWS continues ...

Just in time for a graduation “gift” announcement to our students, our project entered into strategic partnerships with two separate TV stations – TV6 and CNMG.

Sponsor representative Angela Lee Loy and youth of the Toco area at the launch of the NGO in Cumana in June

GOOD NEWS! … With TV6 we will partner on a graduates programme for students who have successfully completed our programme. TV6 will establish a programme to use them as roving reporters for the towns and villages where they live.

They will bring them in and show them how to raise their production quality. We thank Shida Bolai, General Manager of CCN TV6 for extending this wonderful opportunity to our grads

GOOD NEWS! … With CNMG we will partner for our incoming group in 2008 for technical learning support, developmental interactions between their television professionals and the youth and participation in today’s full range of communications media through experiences with CNMG TV, three partnering radio stations and their hosting of a GOOD NEWS blog on their Internet portal - so our young participants’ work, their lives and voices, their villages and towns will be seen on the world scene. We thank Julian Rogers and CNMG for sharing their vision and this opportunity with the youth of THE GOOD NEWS.

School links and qualification

GOOD NEWS! … With the Rio Claro High School, we are exploring possibilities and hoping to gain the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Education to set up a video production unit in the school to serve the school and the community at large.

We want to approach NEDCO and train the students in small business operation, learning proposal writing, marketing their video products etc
GOOD NEWS! … NGO president Maureen Arneaud has started working towards CVQ (Caricom Vocational Qualification) certification with the National Training Agency for the awarding of the T&T NVQ - National Vocational Qualification and the CVQ Level 1 in camera operation.

The silent miracle behind the Good News – our team.

Selected school personnel are being trained to be assessors.

As we are exploring partnering with the El Dorado Secondary school we were invited by them to start certification training at their school.

Hatim Gardner of the National Training Agency was very welcoming saying we were the first NGO entering the certification process.

GOOD NEWS! … Principal of the Rio Claro High School Gabriella Rodriguez, whose students are in the programme, has this to say: “The transformational value of the project is very high because it gives young people a voice which is directly linked to the technology of the age. It gives them a global voice and that opens them up to the whole world. This is also very much in keeping with the call from our Ministry of Education to prepare them for the global environment.”

Speaking to the commitment of this NGO to social justice, to the building of human dignity, the right of everyone to full participation in the world’s abundance and opportunity, and the NGO’s core value of building community, Mrs Rodriguez went on to say, “One consistent thread in social injustice is silence - that people don’t speak up, don’t feel they have power to say anything, that they are silenced.

But this project teaches young people to look, think, see and speak up … out of darkness into life and light … into being able to speak truth and even to know the audience that they can reach. This project brings them out of silence into creativity…creatively voicing what needs to be said …”

Collaboration and partnering

Incredible collaboration and outpourings of help have come from the communities we serve, from our sponsors, from far and wide as groups, individuals, universities, companies heard the Good News and joined in to support our efforts  – from our UWI trainers, and there were so many “silent” contributors like the guys at Campus Copy in St Augustine, Trevor Mason a wonderful helper to our cause, to Don Palladee of Pennywise who contributed make up for our reporters and even the good people at the University of Kansas who assisted with the curriculum.

Our gratitude to Mike Arneaud who facilitated contacts with our corporate collaborators; Fr Reggie Hezekiah who believed in our dream, Sr Monique Moniquette of the Catholic Chaplaincy whose quiet and practical help strengthened us; Sr Annette Chow, Rio Claro Parish Administrator; the Clerks, Borels and Roberta Pyke of Toco, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt of CCHR; 3Canal for allowing us to use their Good News song as our theme song and a wonderful, wonderful NGO team. Our deepest gratitude to all.

We thank God for His loving wisdom that led us into proclaiming THE GOOD NEWS to youth far and wide. We thank God for the incredible team of weekly volunteers who are the silent miracle of this project. For here is the result.

In the words of Adrian Hercules, a participant from the Rio Claro crew, as he spoke on CNMG News last weekend: “THE GOOD NEWS, I must See it, I must Say it and most importantly I must BE it! 

To God be the glory. Bless our children, Lord. All done in His name. Christmas blessings to all.

Contact info: 662-5417 … caribe_trin@yahoo.com