Читать книгу Voices from the Hills - Ancil Neil - Страница 18

The study revealed that in September, 1970, Father Gerald Pantin and Mr. Wesley Hall, a West Indies test cricketer, officially began a project in Laventille known as 'Servo!, (Service Volunteered For All). It was done with no advance publicity and no set plan in mind. They went into the depressed area reputed to be the biggest trouble area of the territory, and major source of the 'Black Power Riots' of February to April of 1970. The primary reason was to establish contact with the people and try to identify, at first hand, the problems of the area. They were primarily concerned with contacting the limers' (young men who hung around the street corners in small gangs because they were unemployed).

They realized that they were meeting a cynical, disillusioned, suspicious group and so they had to break down the barrier before they could obtain information and offer help.

"In February, 1971, Father Pantin made a formal request of the Commanding Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Forces, that some volunteers be assigned to work with him in a development program in Laventille."²⁷

"Subsequent contacts with overseas foundations in Holland, Canada, the United States of America and England, and money obtained through local fund raising ventures, enabled full-time employees to be added to the staff."²⁸

The general approach by Servol was to establish intimate contact with the people in every aspect of their daily lives, and to set up a model for development which could be examined and analyzed over a three-year period.²⁹

Servol was interested in the self-development of the disadvantaged people in Laventille. The Organization saw itself as a catalyst for the social changes initiated by the success of the steelband in the area. It was in this context 'Serve developed in the area, and was responsible for a variety of programs that helped to alleviate the many problems of the poor in Laventille.