WHILE most girls her age are busy learning the lyrics to the latest Rhythm & Blues chart-topper, 13-year-old Choc'late Allen is seeking to lobby for a crime-free nation and to empower youth to develop positive attitudes.
You may be wondering how a soon-to-be-14-year-old can influence young people, but her method is as simple as it is subtly poignant. She fasts.

Choc'late gets her inspiration from Mahatma Ghandi, the Indian spiritual and political leader famed for using non-violent means, particularly fasting, to protest against oppression and discrimination in his country.
Decades after Ghandi's death, Choc'late has found inspiration in his biography.

Thirteen year-old Choc'late Allen answers questions fielded to her by Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba at the St Andrew parish library on Thursday. The Trinidadian teen was in the island to conduct a five-day read-and-fast programme for a 100 per cent crime-free nation. (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

"I read the biography of Mahatma Ghandi and was inspired by the way he got his messages across. It was always along the same line of creating a 100 per cent crime free nation," Choc'late told the Sunday Observer, as she sat outside the corridor of the St Andrew parish library, Oxford dictionary in hand, on what was her second day of reading and fasting for peace and purity.

The child activist, who rose to public attention in February after she staged a five-day fast in Port of Spain, pleading with people to stop criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago, had initially planned to spend three days in Jamaica doing more of the same.

She, however, extended her visit to five days.
On Thursday, she told the Sunday Observer that a crime-free nation means more than the absence of killing and stealing.
"Crime is also the negative things we think about," she said. "We need to accept personal responsibility for our thoughts and our actions. We should not blame politicians, the police or our circumstances. Although these things do contribute to crime, we should accept our responsibility," she said.

Over the five days, Choc'late fasted and read for 12 hours each day - between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. For the first three days, she fasted and read at the parish library, where students and adults alike flocked her, eager to hear her philosophy. She spent Friday and yesterday at Emancipation Park, where the reaction from the crowd was similar.

The focus on reading, Allen said, was to foster the acquisition of knowledge in young people, which she said was an avenue to the reduction and eradication of crime.
"I'm encouraging young people to read motivational books because we all need knowledge which is a source of upliftment and development."

"It's one thing to fast and another thing to know what you're doing when you're fasting. Some people fast for spiritual reasons, some fast for health reasons. My fast has a religious background, but I'm inter-religious. I attend all worship houses and I read all religious books," the teen, who sports neatly groomed locks, added.

The home-schooled teen confided that she put off sitting four subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level this year in order to promote the 100 per cent crime-free initiative. She is in Jamaica with her mother Fabienne, father Kurt, grandma Linda and her assistant Sara-Lee Smith.

Although only 13, she is the chief executive officer (CEO) of a five-year-old regional youth organisation called Caribbean Vizion. With members representing each country within the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Caribbean Vizion seeks to promote and lobby for cultural and economic co-operation among Caribbean people and their governments. Members visit schools and other areas that have large concentrations of youth and put on edu-cultural presentations, as well as give motivational and informational speeches. The aim of this is to motivate young people to achieve academic and social success.

"I'm just thankful that I'm her mother and that she's here to share her initiative with Jamaican youth," said Choc'late's mother Fabienne. "a lot of what she's doing is just natural and we supported her and guided her. We support her 101 per cent."

Choc'late hopes to come back to Jamaica in September when she'll take the edu-culture focus of Caribbean Vizion into schools. "I want to see young people being responsible. I want to see them contributing something positive to our community," she said. The teen is also expected to take her message to other Caribbean countries.

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