Violence in the community often has devastating effects on men and women. Proliferation of guns, turf conflicts, gang activity and violent crime often lead to death of loved ones, particularly fathers, brothers and sons. Apart from the grief experienced by family members, women are often left with the additional burden of providing for the emotional, financial and physical needs of their families.
The Hope Support Group (HSG) was formed in November 2006 in response to all the grief and pain being experienced by the women whose husbands, sons and brothers were being murdered within the urban communities of Trinidad and Tobago. The group is involved in planning and implementing programs and activities for the resolving of grief and the transforming of grief into positive action through facilitating mutual support, spiritual, educational, recreational and social activities and events.
Through networking with other Community groups and NGO’s many of the women have received training and are actively taking the message of healing into schools and communities.
As Hope Support Group prepares to celebrate it’s sixth anniversary, it now has a total of seven groups located in Port of Spain, San Fernando, Point Fortin, La Horquetta, Maloney, Couva, and Tobago. The groups have grown to include support for persons suffering tragic loss of health and support to persons whose relatives have committed suicide. HSG has also facilitated the start of groups for children who have suffered tragic loss; they meet in Morvant and Maloney twice monthly.