‘See the positive aspects of T&T’ | Local News | trinidadexpress.com

Trinidad is a wonderful place.

So said Diana Mahabir-Wyatt who chose to see the positive aspects of this country, as she received the Inspirational Champion of Women Award at the International Women’s Forum Trinidad and Tobago’s (IWFTT) Inspirational Women gala awards at the Hyatt Regency hotel, in Port of Spain, to honour outstanding women in T&T who are role models and who have demonstrated outstanding leadership.

The other recipients at the event on Tuesday night were Anika Plowden-Corentin, who received the Inspirational Emerging Leader Award, and The UWI principal Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, who received the Inspirational Advocate Award.

Speaking at the event, Mahabir-Wyatt said people are not aware of how fortunate they are, and asked, “Does anybody in the media ever stop to say how absolutely wonderful Trinidad is?”

She continued: “If you listen to the news, you see disasters all over the world and people who are dying in war and conflict, and we have Trinidad.

“We have a world of one religion fighting against another, and we have a country in which there are probably more religions than we can count, and nobody thinks anything unusual about that.

“We live in a world where racism is really paramount in terms of conflict, and you look around Trinidad and you look at all the dogma that we have, and nobody really takes that on because everybody celebrates everybody else’s holidays and celebrations.

“We are very fortunate; we don’t realise how fortunate we are, and we don’t talk about what we have.

“I don’t think that there is one person here that does not have in their family and extended family people who are of other races or other religions, of other interest groups, and we take it for granted.

“Yes, of course we have conflict, but I think that we are fortunate in a way that we don’t realise and we can be an example to the rest of the world with just what Trinidad is and our community.”

Mahabir-Wyatt said she was humbled to receive the Inspirational Champion of Women Award for her work through her battered women’s shelter, and described this period of her life as the harvest period.

“I am in the last few years of my life. It is harvest time for me. It is just being here with people I admire, realising that some of the things that are very important to me have made a difference in people’s lives.

“The battered women’s shelter went far beyond where I ever dreamed it could go. I want to thank the men and women who picked up where I left off and went on to be the head of the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights,” she said.

Inequality and injustice

Antoine, who received the Inspirational Advocate Award for her work as an advocate on critical issues such as labour rights, gender justice and indigenous people’s rights, credited her family and The UWI for her success over the years.

“There is so much inequity and injustice in this world that I do not know how to keep silent. It was really my family, my profession and the University of the West Indies that allowed this to grow and gave me the tools to do something.

“I was blessed with a family that exposed me to values such as fairness and service to others. Then my profession at The UWI always centred around regional development and gave me opportunities, including consulting work and key positions, and I had the power to change policy and direction and to represent the marginalised and the voiceless,” she said.

Healing and

self-expression

Plowden-Corentin, who received the Inspirational Emerging Leader Award for her work with Chosen Hands, a non-profit art and wellness creative programme that uses art as a vehicle for personal development, healing and self-expression, said the platform allowed her to re-shape the course of the lives of young people in this country.

She said, “Forums like these provide opportunities to continue to speak the message of hope into the lives of our future generation. Through arts and creativity, Chosen Hands mentorship initiatives were born, and Chosen Hands is now part of a global movement where we network through the international visitors programme to over 23 countries, with a unified vision of using art as a vehicle to create social change. Often, it takes one simple act to change the trajectory of one at-risk youth,” she said.

Plowden-Corentin also lauded the IWFTT for its work. “Forums like these provide opportunities to continue to speak the message of hope into the lives of our future generation. It also provides the platform to acknowledge all the skills, talents and influence this room has to positively reshape the course of the lives of young people in our country.

“It provides the opportunity to continue the discourse of how creativity and the arts can be used as a vehicle to empower economically disadvantaged and at-risk youth, and how art can be used as a tool to break down barriers and tackle tough topics,” Plowden-­Corentin said.