In 1970, Trinidad and Tobago was experiencing some very difficult times. A number of people, mainly from the Laventille area, began a series of demonstrations to protect the social conditions of the poor. These marches, subsequently known as the "Black Power" demonstrations, continued and the numbers increased until a group of highly trained officers persuaded the Army to attempt to overthrow the Government by violent revolution.

Following this, Fr.Gerard Pantin, a Roman Catholic Priest/ teacher at St.Mary's College and Mr. Wesley Hall, a cricketer who was on a coaching assignment with the West Indian Tobacco Company, went into the Laventille area to find out how they could assist the people with the various problems they faced. They made contact with a number of street corner groups, had "rap sessions" with them and eventually overcame their initial suspicion and hostility. As a result, SERVOL (Service Volunteered for ALL),a voluntary organisation, was born.

After a period of about three (3) months, Wesley Hall returned to his Barbados and Fr. Pantin made a formal request to the Commander of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force to have some volunteers assigned to work with him in a developmental programme in Laventille.  This request was approved and so twelve (12) soldiers and sailors were assigned to work with SERVOL.  Without knowledge of the theory and practice of community development, they adopted the procedure of asking each group "How can we help you?" It is interesting to note that forty (40) years after, SERVOL workers still continue to ask this question of those who come to them for any form of assistance.

Having laid the groundwork, SERVOL's aim now was not simply to work for the under-privileged but to get the under-privileged to work for themselves, to get them out of the stagnation they were in and to help them formulate goals they could realize.

SERVOL was interested in the self-development of people. It was not a welfare organization nor did it see its explicit task as being the mass transformation of society or the alleviating of the many problems of the poor. Rather it saw itself as a small but important catalyst for social change which Caribbean society desperately needed. In working with people in all their many and various projects, SERVOL was also searching for new models for development, which were capable of being taken up by larger organizations and implemented on a large scale.

In doing all this, two general principles were used: firstly, in helping a community towards self-development, always begin with what the people say they want. Secondly, help the people to achieve and accomplish only what they can afford to pay for, so care was taken not to set up elaborate projects which were largely subsidized by outside finance. These might look very impressive but in reality have little to do with true development.

SERVOL'S PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH

SERVOL has invented its own jargon to describe its basic philosophy and method of approach. In the gospel according to SERVOL, anyone trying to help disadvantaged people should base their approach on a philosophy of ignorance. Expressed simply, this means that you should never presume that you know the needs of people: ask them what these needs are and what type of help they want. The next step is that of attentive listening. You should listen carefully to what the people tell you, convinced that their voice is the most important element in their own development and you should continue to adopt this listening stance throughout your dialogue with them. What pernicious attitude exists in each one of us that prevents us from offering genuine help to our fellow-man and which attentive listening seeks to eradicate.

It is the attitude of cultural arrogance which tends to make people believe that because they come from a certain country or ethnic background or have benefited from a certain type of education, that this makes them superior to other people.  In SERVOL's view, it is only when serious attempt is made to grapple with that problematic attitude that people are entitled to interfere in the lives of others, through a process of respectful intervention.  The only way to help another is to do so respectfully, conscious that we both have a lot to learn from dialogue and that we will both emerge richer for the experience.

SERVOL soon became convinced that all its efforts at community development and nation building should be focused on two (2) age groups:

                                      0-5   year old children
                                    13-19 year old adolescents

It was clear to the organization that it should resist the temptation of trying to help everyone in need and that it would best make a positive contribution by concentration on these two age groups. The rationale behind this choice was both philosophical and pragmatic.  Everyone agreed that the early years of a child's life and the period at which the adolescent leaves school and prepares to take his place in the world are absolutely critical. Allied to this was the fact that no one in Trinidad, least the Ministry of Education, was doing anything to help these age-groups, so that SERVOL was reasonably confident that these programmes could be set up without stepping on toes of officialdom.

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