The National Council of Orisha Elders of Trinidad and Tobago is calling for greater recognition and support for the Orisha community.

As members of the Orisha faith reflected on their spiritual traditions and long-standing struggles at Mother Earth Day celebrations on Wednesday, Secretary of the Council, Baba Neal Rawlins, says that despite decades of presence in the country, practitioners continue to face challenges, including limited access to funding and ongoing discrimination.

“We get no funding, no grants, nothing. And I said to her, after 38 years since the ONI would have created the Council for Orisha Elders, and over 200 years of our existence here, I find that this is unfair to us as a people not to benefit from the State.”