Boys who lost home and dad get school transfers

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

Af­ter los­ing their fa­ther, their home and months of school­ing, two broth­ers are fi­nal­ly get­ting a chance to re­build their lives.

The eight- and 12-year-old boys, whose fam­i­ly was forced to re­lo­cate from Debe to Princes Town af­ter a fire de­stroyed their home, will re­turn to school and have been giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty to join the Daren Gan­ga Crick­et Acad­e­my.

Their break­through came af­ter Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed their plight on Mon­day.

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath con­firmed yes­ter­day that arrange­ments have been made for the boys to at­tend Iere Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.

Dowlath said the boys' moth­er, Rose Marie Seenath, was con­tact­ed af­ter the Guardian re­port and con­firmed that a trans­fer ap­pli­ca­tion had been sub­mit­ted in March 2026 af­ter the fam­i­ly re­lo­cat­ed to Princes Town.

Seenath iden­ti­fied Iere Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry as her pre­ferred school.

Dowlath said the school's prin­ci­pal, Er­phram Ramkissoon, agreed to ac­cept both boys af­ter be­ing con­tact­ed.

The 12-year-old will en­ter Stan­dard Five, while his eight-year-old broth­er will be placed in Stan­dard Two.

“New ap­pli­ca­tion forms will be com­plet­ed and processed as soon as pos­si­ble for both chil­dren to start school,” Dowlath said.

“The process will be ex­pe­dit­ed to en­sure chil­dren are reg­is­tered at the school,” Dr Dowlath said.

The boys have been out of school since No­vem­ber 25, 2025, when a fire de­stroyed the an­nex where the fam­i­ly was liv­ing.

Their fa­ther, Dilip Deo, died on April 2, 2024, from a mas­sive heart at­tack.

Af­ter the fire, Seenath and her chil­dren moved be­tween rel­a­tives' homes, ini­tial­ly stay­ing with their great-aunt, Ri­ta Chanka, in Raghoo Vil­lage, Welling­ton Road, Debe, be­fore re­lo­cat­ing to Seenath's moth­er's home in Princes Town, where they now live.

Seenath said her sons were  look­ing for­ward to an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­gain some nor­mal­i­ty through ed­u­ca­tion and sport.

“We are hap­py and grate­ful for the sup­port and they are very ex­cit­ed about school,” she said.

She al­so said they were ex­cit­ed about join­ing the Daren Gan­ga Crick­et Acad­e­my, which of­fers crick­et de­vel­op­ment and coach­ing pro­grammes for boys and girls aged five and old­er at lo­ca­tions across Trinidad.

Chanka said she was thrilled that the boys would have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to use sport as a form of ther­a­py fol­low­ing the trau­ma and up­heaval they have en­dured.

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices has al­so stepped in.

Min­is­ter Van­dana Mo­hit has arranged coun­selling for the boys and as­signed a so­cial work­er to speak with Seenath about State as­sis­tance avail­able to the fam­i­ly.

While the school trans­fer has pro­vid­ed some re­lief, the fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to need help with school books, uni­forms and crick­et sup­plies.

Any­one wish­ing to as­sist with school books, sta­tion­ary and uni­forms can call Seenath at 377-1702 or Chanka at 272-5060.