By Venus Honore-Gopie and Leiselle Maraj Thursday, June 18 2009

“Why? Why? Why?” were the words of Sister Christina Araujo yesterday as news broke that the body of ten-year-old schoolgirl Tecia Henry, who went missing last Saturday, was found.

The lay minister led a lunchtime service at the Holy Rosary RC church, Port-of-Spain on Tuesday where the congregation prayed for the safe return of Tecia.

Tecia’s body was found a few houses away from her Cook Street, John John, Laventille home yesterday morning. In her message on Tuesday, Araujo told the congregation to pray for the conversion of those who had taken away Tecia and her safe return.

Araujo yesterday said the question in her heart was a cry from deep down inside asking, “Why?”

She said she had no doubt that Tecia “is now safely at home with God,” but questioned, “Why was her life here on earth so brutally taken away from her?”

“A child full of potential for life is killed, for what? How could we reach this point?” Araujo questioned. “The killing has to stop, we are destroying ourselves.”

Meanwhile, calypsonian Sandra “Singing Sandra” Des Vignes urged citizens to pray for the nation in light of Tecia’s murder. Singing Sandra provided entertainment at the North West Regional Health Authority’s public board meeting at the National Library, Port-of-Spain. Before singing her popular song, “Voices from the Ghetto”, Singing Sandra, a resident of Laventille, explained to her audience that she did not feel well after spending yesterday in tears because of Tecia’s death.

“I am appealing to all mothers, women and men, we have to pray about what happened. How many more innocent children must die before something is done. What we could do is pray. And you cannot pray from just the tips of your tongues but you have to pray from your hearts,” she said.