DUANVALE, Trelawny — Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna has called on the Church to insist that persons passing through its doors adhere to a dress code.

“As a young woman myself, over the past months I recognise that there is another value system in our midst that is being eroded — just the simple way we come, as women and men, to pay tribute to church and how we put ourselves together. The time has come for the church to say there is a dress code for church,” Hanna said.

She further noted: “We have to set standards, we have to set respect, and we must never be afraid as the people of this great country to tell the truth when the truth must be heard”.

She was speaking at the Duanvale New Testament Church of God Saturday at the thanksgiving service for Natasha Brown, the four-year-old girl who was beheaded and dumped in a sinkhole in the community.

Hanna, who was among scores of mourners, underscored that she was not in attendance at the emotional service to “condemn anyone”, but charged that everyone should shoulder the responsibility of “taking the community back”.

“We talk about values and pay lip service in this country. The Government alone cannot instill values and attitudes. It has to start with everyone of us. Natasha’s life should not be just about coming to the funeral and going back home. It must send a very serious reminder to all of us so that the little ones here who went to school with her should not end up in the same fate and we should build a better Jamaica and a better Duanvale for them,” the youth minister demanded.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Patrick Atkinson, who is the MP for North Trelawny where Duanvale is located, lamented the frequency of acts of violence against children.

“One of the basic duties of a society is to protect its children. And this is a time when there are too many situations where children are suffering acts of violence”.

Scores of members of the community, including students from the Duanvale Basic School which Natasha attended, came out in a show of respect to the slain infant.

The well attended funeral was a solemn affair with tears flowing freely down the cheeks of adults and children alike.

Young Natasha who was said to have loved dancing, was described as mannerly, kind and of a humble disposition.

Meanwhile, Marvia Patterson, the woman charged with murder for beheading the four-year-old, was on Friday, June 7 remanded into custody when she appeared in the Clark’s Town Resident Magistrate’s Court. Patterson, 42, a labourer of Duanvale in the parish, is booked to reappear in court on August 2.