In a so­ci­ety that of­ten points to na­tion­al lit­er­a­cy sta­tis­tics as a mark­er of progress, the dai­ly re­al­i­ty for many chil­dren and adults tells a more com­plex sto­ry. While Trinidad and To­ba­go boasts rel­a­tive­ly high lit­er­a­cy rates, pock­ets of the pop­u­la­tion con­tin­ue to strug­gle with ba­sic read­ing and writ­ing skills—chal­lenges that can qui­et­ly shape ed­u­ca­tion­al out­comes, em­ploy­ment prospects and long-term so­cial mo­bil­i­ty.

At just 22, Paris Coutain is carv­ing out a dis­tinc­tive space with­in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mu­sic in­dus­try, blend­ing per­for­mance, so­cial com­men­tary and genre-cross­ing ap­peal.

WPC Quian­na Ma­habir has every rea­son to be grate­ful. A year ago her life hung pre­car­i­ous­ly in the bal­ance af­ter she was shot three times just out­side her Ca­roni home on the morn­ing of Oc­to­ber 22, 2024–an ex­pe­ri­ence of which she has no mem­o­ry but has the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al scars to prove it.

An­daleeb Wa­jid be­gan writ­ing Learn­ing to Make Tea for One dur­ing In­dia’s sec­ond COVID-19 wave, af­ter the pan­dem­ic moved through her house­hold dur­ing the holy month of Ramzan and claimed the lives of her hus­band and moth­er-in-law. The book emerged when words failed. Grief had made speech im­pos­si­ble, and mem­o­ry felt splin­tered. The book was Wa­jid’s way of walk­ing through grief rather than be­ing frozen in it.

Jan­u­ary is the month of fresh starts. We set goals, plan our year, and promise our­selves that we will eat bet­ter, ex­er­cise more, and take bet­ter care of our health. Yet one cru­cial con­ver­sa­tion that is al­ways over­looked for too many women in Trinidad and To­ba­go: cer­vi­cal can­cer screen­ing.

How my sto­ry be­gins: It all start­ed with a pap done in May (2024). Af­ter com­ing back ab­nor­mal, I had to go in for a col­poscopy (a med­ical ex­am where a health­care provider close­ly looks at the cervix (the open­ing of the uterus), and some­times the vagi­na and vul­va, us­ing a spe­cial mag­ni­fy­ing de­vice called a col­po­scope). The doc­tor as­sured me I had noth­ing to wor­ry about be­cause I was young and had no symp­toms. But I was a ner­vous wreck; look­ing back, I don’t know if it’s be­cause deep down I knew or be­cause six years pri­or I had lost a sis­ter to cer­vi­cal can­cer.

The Heal­ing Hub, which cre­ates safe, in­ten­tion­al spaces that pri­ori­tise dig­ni­ty, trust, and holis­tic sup­port for in­di­vid­u­als nav­i­gat­ing se­ri­ous ill­ness, was for­mal­ly in­tro­duced to key stake­hold­ers at an in­ti­mate soft launch held on De­cem­ber 20 at the home of its founder Nicole Dy­er-Grif­fith.

At just 30 years old, Anali Hor­rel of La Ro­maine, south Trinidad, re­ceived news that would for­ev­er change her life. In 2020, she was di­ag­nosed with Stage 1 cer­vi­cal can­cer—a di­ag­no­sis that no woman is ever pre­pared to hear, es­pe­cial­ly at such a young age.

Dri­ven by a pas­sion for pre­serv­ing To­ba­go’s culi­nary her­itage, Danielle Stew­art opened a restau­rant in Black Rock in 2019 with a busi­ness part­ner, ded­i­cat­ed to serv­ing tra­di­tion­al To­bag­on­ian dish­es.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has long pro­duced lead­ers who make waves on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage, and Roger Ramb­harose is a shin­ing ex­am­ple. From hum­ble be­gin­nings in south Trinidad to com­mand­ing op­er­a­tions for one of the world’s largest quick-ser­vice restau­rant net­works, Ramb­harose em­bod­ies the phi­los­o­phy that has guid­ed his jour­ney: “What you think is what you be­come.”

For An­gela Bhag­wan­deen, art is not mere­ly a pas­sion but a care­ful­ly sus­tained way of life, shaped by cre­ativ­i­ty, dis­ci­pline, and an un­wa­ver­ing con­nec­tion to na­ture.

The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (CCIC) of­fi­cial­ly launched its 30th an­niver­sary com­mem­o­ra­tive mag­a­zine on De­cem­ber 20, cel­e­brat­ing three decades of ad­vo­ca­cy, growth and ser­vice to the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.