#Pray4TCI

Dr. Ross says "Your job is to use the power of what happened to you to transform" After watching Dr. Ross’ presentation one of the questions all concerned, compassionate Turks Islanders should seriously be asking ourselves, our elected, civil, social, community and religious leaders is, “What real substantial changes in our society’s attitude and laws need to occur to prevent Child Abuse and Neglect that often causes young kids to mature into depressed, frustrated, angry, unpredictable, sometimes suicidal teens and adults as a result of experiencing the emotional and/or physical trauma of an abusive childhood?”

Over the past few months I've observed the spike in crime within our community and though I am somewhat impressed by the recommendations that have been suggested to combat crime, I still believe "Prevention is cure". There are numerous amounts of studies that report most criminals experiencing some sort of childhood trauma that propels them to a life of criminal activity. One of the things I have observed(correct me if I am wrong) in the Turks and Caicos Islands is the lack of investment into the psychological well- being of our children. Speaking to them more, being more involved in their lives, giving them the necessary attention, etc. And unfortunately this lack of investment transpires into adulthood. Most Turks Islanders are alone, without representation, without a sense of purpose, without any added value to their lives and this is a result of their upbringing.

This video is a great starting point to understanding what we are doing wrong within our community. From here we can bring in the necessary experts to develop state of the art youth programmes that can serve as a hub for other Caribbean islands as well. Jamaicans, Haitians, Bahamains, Bermedians can use our specialised programme to save their youths, thus creating a whole new industry. We can train our people and send them all over America and the Caribbean. If this government truly wants to be remembered for CHANGE!, I would urge them to be the first to INVEST HEAVILY into the start of a new industry other than the tourism industry. Creating a world class youth rehabilition system( Yes, it is profitable, 10 times more profitable than one tourist). It's time we start the HEALING PROCESS within our communities. Start something like a "You Are Not Alone" Campaign and get people to open up about their traumas, document it, air it, get the ball rolling in the right direction. We are responsible for what is happening in our communities and by opening up about our experiences, we can also be a apart of the solution, hence Open Thought 

In closing, in order to solve crime within our communities, we must prosecute the first criminal that entered our lives. The criminal who told us we were no good, who abused us physically and mentally. In the words of Les Brown "Once we defeat the enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm".