A new home for boys was opened on Nelson Street yesterday, eight years after the home’s first building was destroyed by fire in 2007. The Credo Drop-In and Residential Development Centre officially opened yesterday. It has been in operation since March. It offers shelter to homeless boys, a homework centre for the community and has recently started its first adult programme, a hairdressing course for women.
Executive director of Credo, Sr Roberta O’Flaherty, said she felt rebuilding the centre, which cost $8 million, was necessary for the country and the community. She recalled an eight-year-old boy from the community who knocked on the door of the previous building one day and asked if he could live there. O’Flaherty said over the years numerous children who had found themselves on the streets through difficult circumstances had come to the home where they had received help.
“These socially displaced boys and girls are really very good children but they go to the streets because of their circumstances,” she added. She said the home offered academic, technical and psychological development for the children. “The aim is to get young people away from drugs, gangs and crime on the streets,” O’Flaherty said. The home was built with funds accessed from the government as well as private corporate partners.
“This is not an easy era for children. The odds seem stacked against them,” she said. Minister in the Ministry of Gender and Youth Development Raziah Ahmed said Government would exhaust all resources to ensure young people were taken care of and their rights were upheld.
Success story
One of the boys, Brandon (not his real name), at the home described the centre as a safe place for young children. He said he had been in orphanages for as long as he remembered and had never known his parents. He said he had dropped out of two schools and ended up at the Youth Training Centre (YTC) where he was given an option of serving time or going to Credo Centre.
Bramdon added: “I chose Credo Centre and saw two ladies with big smiles and I wondered why they were smiling. “I have been in Credo Centre for eight months and I feel stable for the first time in my life. I am in Servol where I am doing three trades and I will be doing CXC next year.” Brandon was one of a group of young people who expressed gratitude to the centre.