SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Ishka­ma Glob­al Change (IGC), a UK-found­ed glob­al move­ment ded­i­cat­ed to per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and pos­i­tive trans­for­ma­tion, will make its de­but vis­it to T&T this week to par­tic­i­pate in the T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion’s Trade and In­vest­ment Con­ven­tion (TIC) 2025.

Found­ed by Dr Ab­h­nash Kaur Bains, IGC’s mis­sion is “to pro­vide plat­forms, ser­vices and sup­port that en­able per­son­al growth, so­cial im­pact, and glob­al eq­ui­ty,” with a vi­sion “to build a world where con­nec­tions em­pow­er, col­lab­o­ra­tion thrives, and every in­di­vid­ual is em­pow­ered to reach their full po­ten­tial.”

Dr Bains said vice-CEO Dr Mi­nakshi Koch, along with ex­ec­u­tive lead­ers Dr Rin­ki Shar­ma, Dr Ne­ha Swa­mi, Ka­mal­preet Kaur, and IT head Se­sha­sai Koti­pal­li, share and help dri­ve this vi­sion.

On Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, IGC will host its flag­ship busi­ness con­ven­tion, Co-op­er­a­tives Build A Bet­ter World, at the Radis­son Ho­tel, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain. The event will fea­ture thought-lead­er­ship pan­els, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven work­shops, an awards cer­e­mo­ny, and a gala din­ner and dance, with en­ter­tain­ment by Em­press Ajé (Al­li­son Bernard) and oth­ers.

A high­light of the con­ven­tion will be the launch of IGC’s first cof­fee-ta­ble book, show­cas­ing lessons and in­sights from more than 20 ex­tra­or­di­nary achiev­ers who “lead from with­in.”

Among the em­i­nent per­son­al­i­ties and glob­al in­flu­encers fea­tured in the book are Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, the first fe­male Pres­i­dent of Mau­ri­tius; Dr Mahin­dra Ramdeen, CEO of the TTMA; Their High­ness­es Paul Atek­er Egan­da I and Queen Grace Egan­da I; Dr Luis Al­ber­to Her­nan­dez; Dr. La­dy Waynett Pe­ters; and Vanes­sa Hariper­sad.

IGC de­scribes it­self as far more than a com­mu­ni­ty, high­light­ing its com­mit­ment to so­cial in­no­va­tion and en­tre­pre­neur­ial ex­cel­lence. Its ini­tia­tives span eco­nom­ic em­pow­er­ment, gen­der equal­i­ty, en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, health, and glob­al peace­build­ing.

Dr Bains, who cre­at­ed IGC to­geth­er with her daugh­ters, Ish and Ka­ma—af­ter whom the move­ment is named—said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was es­tab­lished to cre­ate net­work­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties in­fused with a spir­it of ser­vice.

“Our be­lief is that if you give to oth­ers, not on­ly do you find in­ner peace, but you cre­ate a move­ment for a bet­ter world,” Dr Bains said.

She ex­plained that IGC’s lead­er­ship frame­work is struc­tured to en­cour­age lead­er­ship at all lev­els through a sys­tem of glob­al, coun­try, and re­gion­al chairs. This de­cen­tralised mod­el, she said, cul­ti­vates grass­roots lead­er­ship, max­imis­es com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, and in­volves vol­un­teers and lo­cal change­mak­ers.

“IGC turns in­tent in­to ac­tion and unites com­mu­ni­ties around shared goals. We be­lieve any­thing is pos­si­ble when we work to­geth­er,” Dr Bains said. “We cel­e­brate ex­cep­tion­al in­di­vid­u­als, cre­ate in­clu­sive plat­forms, em­pow­er peo­ple to share ideas and con­nect mean­ing­ful­ly, and ini­ti­ate im­pact­ful com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven projects.”

She added: “IGC pro­vides a safe, in­clu­sive, and in­spir­ing en­vi­ron­ment for all. We strive to re­duce gen­der dis­par­i­ties and build a fu­ture root­ed in dig­ni­ty, equal­i­ty, and col­lec­tive progress. Be­sides bring­ing to­geth­er en­tre­pre­neurs, vi­sion­ar­ies, and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, IGC fo­cus­es strong­ly on women’s em­pow­er­ment, en­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tion, glob­al health and ed­u­ca­tion, and peace and so­cial jus­tice.”

IGC is ac­tive­ly seek­ing part­ner­ships and has, to date, re­ceived more than 25 awards and recog­ni­tions. The move­ment boasts over 650,000 sub­scribers and con­trib­u­tors world­wide, along with more than 100 glob­al chairs and part­ner­ships.

For part­ner­ships, col­lab­o­ra­tions, par­tic­i­pa­tion, or fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, vis­it https://www.ishka­ma.co.uk or email ishka­ma.igc@hot­mail.com.

Con­ven­tion Sched­ule

Ju­ly 18, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm: Busi­ness Sem­i­nar with re­fresh­ments and lunch.

Ju­ly 19, 9.30 am – 1 pm: Busi­ness Sem­i­nar & Net­work­ing.

Ju­ly 19, 7 pm – 10 pm: Book Un­veil­ing, Gala Din­ner, En­ter­tain­ment, and Dance.