FAMILY AND FRIENDS gathered in Heroes Square yesterday for a memorial ceremony for the 2010 Campus Trendz fire victims heard a plea to help young men.
“We have a culture now where we are condemning our youth and our men also,” said Abdul Rachman, co-founder of the September 3 Foundation, organisers of the ceremony. “Our men and our youth are not bad . . . . They are in desperate need of guidance.”
The audience in The City square stood for a minute’s silence at noon to remember the six young women killed in the fire on September 3 four years ago.
Shanna Griffith, Nikkita Belgrave, Pearl Cornelius, Tiffany Harding, Kellishaw Olivierre and Kelly Ann Welch were all in their early 20s. They were either shopping or working in the Tudor Street store when it was the victim of an arson attack by young robbers. The women were trapped when they ran to the back of the store to escape the smoke and flames.
Rachman said that although he might not be popular for his remarks about young men, they needed to be said because many youths did not have a strong, positive, progressive black role models in their lives.
