SVDP serving in Trinidad for over 150 years

Established as an all-male society in Trinidad and Tobago in 1857, today the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Trinidad is 80% female. One of the society’s major contributions to the welfare of this country is the management of homes for the aged, hostels, night shelters, halfway houses/centres and the very special Cyril Ross “SVP” Nursery.

“Initially,” says the national president Bro Boneo, “when the Society started, some of our homes, first built in 1884 or thereabouts, were for women only, now we have a lot less women than men having a need for housing. “We must visit and see the conditions of the institutions we manage. No work of charity is foreign to us. At conference level some of the things we look at include housing and school uniforms, and at national level we are involved in HIV, geriatrics and battered women….We are in everything and encourage members through our theme ‘Embracing The Vincentian Family’,” says the national president.