Three out­stand­ing daugh­ters of T&T will be ho­n­oured by the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum Trinidad and To­ba­go (IWFTT) at their up­com­ing 2023 In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards Gala. This year marks the IWFTT’s sec­ond year of host­ing the In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards.

IWFTT launched its in­au­gur­al In­spi­ra­tional Women Awards in 2022 and cel­e­brat­ed three out­stand­ing women: the for­mer first la­dy Mrs Za­lay­har Has­sanali, Lynette See­baran-Suite and Prof Emeri­ta Rho­da Red­dock.

This year the three cho­sen awardees are Di­ana Ma­habir-Wy­att, Prof Rose-Marie Belle An­toine, and Ani­ka Plow­den-Corentin.

 Ma­habir-Wy­att, well known for her decades of pi­o­neer­ing work fight­ing do­mes­tic abuse and pro­vid­ing safe shel­ter for abused women and chil­dren, will be ho­n­oured with the In­spi­ra­tional Cham­pi­on of Women Award. Prof Belle An­toine, prin­ci­pal of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, who is known for her work in the es­tab­lish­ment of the In­ter­na­tion­al Hu­man Rights Clin­ic, merg­ing acad­e­mia and ac­tivism to ad­dress var­i­ous so­cial is­sues in­clud­ing mi­grants, in­dige­nous peo­ples, and gen­der jus­tice among oth­ers, will re­ceive the In­spi­ra­tional Ad­vo­cate Award, while Plow­den-Corentin, self-taught mixed me­dia artist and sto­ry­teller, who us­es her tal­ents to em­pow­er young women through art, will be ho­n­oured with the In­spi­ra­tional Emerg­ing Leader Award.

Plow­den-Corentin is the founder of Cho­sen Hands, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion that pro­vides art and well­ness pro­grammes for at-risk girls. This award recog­nis­es and ho­n­ours a younger woman whose work, though not yet well known or pub­li­cised, has had an amaz­ing and pos­i­tive im­pact.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum T&T com­pris­es a com­mu­ni­ty of women lead­ers from a range of pro­fes­sions and sec­tors. It was es­tab­lished in 2014 and is a mem­ber of the glob­al In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Fo­rum (IWF), a net­work of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 7,800 ac­com­plished women lead­ers from 33 coun­tries on six con­ti­nents. The core pur­pose of IWF and IWFTT is to recog­nise, cel­e­brate and con­nect ac­com­plished women lead­ers, while ac­cel­er­at­ing the emer­gence of the next gen­er­a­tion of fe­male trail­blaz­ers, by cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for those in­di­vid­u­als who are still build­ing their ca­reers and busi­ness­es, to ac­cess a unique, di­verse, in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of fe­male thought lead­ers and game chang­ers.

This year’s gala will be held at the Hy­att Re­gency, on Tues­day and has at­tract­ed the fol­low­ing plat­inum spon­sors, Re­pub­lic Bank Lim­it­ed, First Cit­i­zens, Phoenix Park Gas Proces­sors and bpTT, along with a host of T&T’s top com­pa­nies in the gold and bronze part­ner­ship cat­e­gories.

At­ten­dees will be im­mersed in a ta­pes­try of em­pow­er­ing speech­es, mes­meris­ing per­for­mances, and a vi­brant at­mos­phere that cel­e­brates the in­domitable spir­it of women.

Next Week: High­lights from the Gala & the in­spir­ing work of the 2023 Awardees