Help Offered for Person With Problems.
THE Saint Lucia Mission of Seventh-day Adventists is offering a lifeline to people who feel they are drowning under the pressures of life.
Such a lifeline can be found on the corner of Chaussee Road and Jeremie Street in the city of Castries.
Aptly called the Lifeline Centre, this new feature of the church offers an after-school and mentorship programme to at-risk youth in the inner-city. In addition, Lifeline Centre will be providing counselling services, self-defense classes, life-style education, massage services, basic health care checks, diabetes management and prevention classes and breakfast demos where people are taught to prepare healthy morning dishes.
According to organizers, the Centre will also make an attempt at curbing the violence that has gripped the city of late.
All the services offered are free of charge to the public.
“As a Seventh Day Adventist body, we believe in not only preaching the gospel but also in mingling with the people, giving them love in a tangible way. It has always been our goal, our mission, to help others in a tangible way,” said Marvin Ceromain, committee member responsible for health services at the Centre.
“We always had this on our agenda,” he said, referring to the demonstrability of love. “Now is the manifestation.”
The Centre’s realization is due to the perseverance of Pastor Lucius Phillip who is responsible for personal and health ministries at the Mission. He managed to get the Mission on board with the idea of developing such a Centre in St. Lucia.
Ceromain said the Centre will offer an afternoon programme for secondary school children within the Castries area where they will be assisted in subject areas like Mathematics and English and learn to play an instrument.
An interesting part of the afternoon programme for children will be an introductory to the making of short films.
“We will also have kweyol classes where people can learn to write and speak kweyol so as to preserve our heritage,” Ceromain said.
The Centre will be targeting people residing in the Castries basin but will not turn away those who reside elsewhere. All the programmes will be conducted by volunteers, and some ome of the programmes will be accessible only through appointments.
