It Takes a Village to Build a Village

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Our Team

MARCUS CALLISTE, BOARD MEMBER (Click here for info)

Marcus Calliste was born in Trinidad and raised in Brooklyn. He is a highly experienced and dedicated leader with a strong background in operational, project, and program management combined over 12 years of military service. He is able to plan, staff, budget, and supervise operations involving hundreds of employees and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and facilities. As a Medical Service Corps Officer he has the ability to prepare and deliver precise reports and collaborate with senior managers, including local, state and federal officials. Marcus has thrived in stressful environments, ensuring focused decision making and excellent management and leadership at all times. As a PR-G Board Member he serves as a mentor and role model for many young people affiliated with P-RG.

TRISHA OCONA FRANCIS, BOARD OF ADVISORS (Click here for info)

Trisha was born and raised in Brooklyn to parents of Trinidadian decent. Trisha began her career in real estate in 1999 when she managed a City Hall real estate law firm and property management company. Realizing real estate was her divine calling; left her position there to commit to further utilizing and developing her expertise and discovered passion. Trisha is a licensed Real Estate Salesperson in the State of New Jersey at Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty and a licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of New York; where she is the Broker/Owner at realestateOCONA, LLC in New York City. Trisha is an appointed board member of the New York State Department of State’s Real Estate Board; where she and her fellow board members share regulatory duties with The Division of Licensing Services and has the power to set the rules and regulations of New York State Real Estate, and help create and enforce the NYS real estate laws. In addition, she is the real estate instructor at Medgar Evers College. Trisha has written for numerous real estate news columns and has been a guest and featured on numerous media and news publications.

BARNABAS UBA SHAKUR, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (Click here for info)

Barnabas is an internationally recognized and multi-award winning social entrepreneur. He was born in Trinidad to the musician Winston “Defosto” Scarborough and a seamstress. His parents divorced when he was very young and his mother was forced to raise him in a single parent home in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), Brooklyn after migrating to the New York. These circumstances forced this adolescent in the same plight that many urban teens face with poverty, gangs, drugs, violence and other struggles. In 2001, Barnabas' childhood friend was found guilty of a crime, and received a lifetime sentence at a maximum-security prison. Only a teenager at the time of his arrest, his friend belonged to a notorious gang that strives in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, known as “the Bloods.” Upon his friend's conviction, Barnabas was devastated and sought to create change. In 2002, Barnabas gathered a group of committed volunteers and legally formed PR-G as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization in Bed-Stuy; the mission is and was to eliminate teen idleness in Bed-Stuy and neighboring communities in central Brooklyn through education, recreation and partnerships.

About The Project

Within the Caribbean islands state of Trinidad and Tobago, substantial pockets of poverty exist. Home ownership for those in this economic state can be very hard or impossible to achieve. The rising cost of houses and land, unwillingness of financial institutions to lend, unstable employment, and lack of certificates of inherited land are all major obstacles for many families to get a decent place to live. Those who have managed to secure land often live in self-made, dilapidated homes of old wood and/or cinder blocks. Without the means to repair, improve or expand, families can find themselves in cramped, unsanitary, decaying structures that they call home.

This Build Louder Team from Habitat-NYC is joining Global Village and PR-G in supporting Habitat for Humanity Trinidad and Tobago’s building program as we work to change lives and communities. This unique trip will combine building and advocacy by meeting with community leaders, NGOs, local media, and elected officials to learn about and discuss the complex housing issues facing the country and ways creative solutions can be implemented to aid in eradicating poverty housing. The team will be raising our voices as well as our hammers for the cause of affordable housing in Trinidad.

Working in partnership with low-income families to build or repair safe and affordable houses and advocating for policy and structural changes helps to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. The reality of meeting basic needs is easily possible once families have adequate living conditions. A place to clean clothes and keep them clean, safely store food, sleep well, meet necessary hygiene needs, build family relationships, and participate in the community all becomes possible with safe, affordable, decent homes.

Through home-building and partnering with families, Habitat & PR-G will not only create shelter, but also improve family health, build a sense of security and dignity, increase opportunities for families to generate their own income, and empower the entire community by involving the families directly in building their new homes and lives.

Please consider donating to this worthy cause today.