The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices host­ed its first ever So­cial Work­er of the Year Awards cer­e­mo­ny on May 11, at the Hy­att Re­gency, in Port-of-Spain, to ac­knowl­edge and cel­e­brate the achieve­ments of so­cial work­ers at­tached to the min­istry.

A to­tal of 39 so­cial work­ers from var­i­ous di­vi­sions and lo­cal board of­fices were recog­nised for their ef­forts to­wards im­prov­ing the lives of the vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Third place winner of the Social Worker of the Year, Nyiida Andrews, left, and deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, Wendy Guy-Hernandez.

Line min­is­ter Don­na Cox com­mend­ed the so­cial work­ers for their cease­less ded­i­ca­tion and ef­fort to sup­port those in need, and stat­ed that their ef­forts demon­strate their pas­sion, per­se­ver­ance and ded­i­ca­tion to help­ing, em­pow­er­ing and trans­form­ing lives.

“So­cial work­ers serve as a true tes­ta­ment that with de­ter­mi­na­tion, en­durance, dis­ci­pline and the right at­ti­tude, one can push through and over­come the hur­dles. I hope that your peers can be in­spired that recog­ni­tion at the high­est lev­el is with­in their reach and would con­tin­ue to as­pire to­wards this goal,” said Cox while shar­ing some words of en­cour­age­ment to the so­cial work­ers present.

National Social Development Programme (NSDP) director Patricia De Leon-Henry, left, collects the Minister’s Cup, the highest honour that can be awarded to a department, from Minister Donna Cox.

The So­cial Work­er of the Year award went to the so­cial work­er with the most ex­em­plary rep­u­ta­tion of suc­cess in the min­istry’s so­cial work land­scape—Far­isha Mo­hammed of the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion.

Mo­hammed serves on the man­age­ment com­mit­tee of the St Jude’s School for Girls’ and the Josephine Shaw Tran­si­tion­al Home for Young Women.

Her per­son­al mot­to by which she lives is “Be the adult you need­ed as a child,” which has served as a mo­ti­va­tion to trans­form fam­i­lies through build­ing re­silience and em­pow­er­ing chil­dren with a strong sense of self-worth so that they can grow in­to well round­ed and re­silient adults.

Avinash Rampersad, left, director of D Rampersad and Company Ltd; Luann Joseph, who collected on behalf of her father, Victor Joseph, who placed second, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, Ryan Ramcharan and Gertis des Vignes, TSTT’s ICT product manager.

The Na­tion­al So­cial De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme and the Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Di­vi­sion were al­so recog­nised for their out­stand­ing ef­forts in ad­vanc­ing the work of the min­istry.

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices con­grat­u­lat­ed all so­cial work­ers for their hard work and com­mit­ment to­wards im­prov­ing the lives of the vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens of T&T.

The oth­er fi­nal­ists were:

- Vic­tor Joseph- So­cial Wel­fare Ad­vi­sor at the Ch­agua­nas Lo­cal Board

- Nyi­i­da An­drews- In­spec­tor I at the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing

- Aleena Mo­hammed-Kara­math- act­ing Su­per­vi­sor at the Ch­agua­nas Lo­cal Board