A study of Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis(MS) in Trinidad and To­ba­go is cur­rent­ly on­go­ing at the Cen­tre for Health Eco­nom­ics at UWI. The study aims to un­der­stand the qual­i­ty of life of MS Pa­tients in Trinidad and To­ba­go us­ing new de­vel­op­ments in health out­comes re­search, a field that com­bines med­i­cine and eco­nom­ics and spe­cial­izes in mea­sur­ing and un­der­stand­ing health. This study has re­ceived per­ti­nent ap­provals from UWI and the Min­istry of Health.

Ad­vanc­ing the clin­i­cal un­der­stand­ing of un­der­ly­ing dis­ease ac­tiv­i­ty and pro­gres­sion for the mil­lions of peo­ple liv­ing with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis (MS) world­wide is part of Roche’s com­mit­ment with the MS com­mu­ni­ty.

Brought with East In­di­ans when they came to Trinidad and To­ba­go from 1845 as in­den­tured labour­ers, the Bha­gavad Gi­ta, a main holy book of Hin­dus, of­fers spir­i­tu­al wis­dom and prin­ci­ples for liv­ing. It re­mains sa­cred to many devo­tees in T&T and across the globe.

“In­di­an Ar­rival Day is about re­mem­ber­ing how we pre­serve and prop­a­gate the cul­ture that has been hand­ed down to us over the years. It’s been 177 years.

Tr­ishelle Lea­cock is pour­ing her all in­to her pas­sion and mak­ing oth­ers take no­tice. The 26-year-old for­mer na­tion­al track and field ath­lete-turned-fash­ion de­sign­er and en­tre­pre­neur has re­brand­ed her Reign fash­ion line to Kaiso. Swim and was re­cent­ly fea­tured in Marie Claire’s 40 Best Swimwear Brands for Sum­mer 2022 and Essence’s emerg­ing Black women fash­ion de­sign­ers.

Ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed Na­tions, the num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als in the world above age 60 is ex­pect­ed to in­crease rapid­ly. This age­ing pat­tern is es­pe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries, where the pro­por­tion of old­er in­di­vid­u­als will in­crease from about 9% in 2015 to 16% by 2040. The num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als di­ag­nosed with chron­ic dis­ease has grown due to this trend. For in­stance, one study found that the num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als with Parkin­son’s dis­ease will dou­ble be­tween 2005 and 2030, and the weight of dis­ease will shift from de­vel­oped na­tions to de­vel­op­ing na­tions.

Sur­vivor XX re­mem­bers the feel­ing of her abuser’s fin­gers around her neck. Some­times all it takes is a whiff of fa­mil­iar cologne to re­call the rib he broke and it starts to ache. She es­caped an abu­sive re­la­tion­ship 12 years ago but re­lives what hap­pened through Post-Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der (PTSD); a men­tal health con­di­tion that can oc­cur af­ter var­i­ous kinds of trau­ma. She was on­ly re­cent­ly di­ag­nosed last year dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, the year she was forced to be in iso­la­tion with her thoughts.

The last cou­ple of years have been try­ing for all of us, it has brought many of us to our knees, yet some have been able to make the best use of it. In­di­vid­u­al­ly, we have vary­ing lev­els of re­silience and cop­ing skills. One of my daugh­ters told me that her cop­ing skills are wan­ing, and I said to her, “Ba­by, just a lit­tle bit more.” When we get to that point, we need to tell our­selves just a lit­tle bit more. I lost my fa­ther and broth­er with­in two weeks of each oth­er in 2020, and while the sting of death is al­most un­bear­able, I told my­self, just a lit­tle bit more, be­cause I knew that oth­ers lost so much more. Many of us have lost loved ones, and that loss was fur­ther pro­nounced be­cause many of them died alone, and trav­el re­stric­tions fur­ther com­pound­ed the grief. Many peo­ple al­so lost their jobs, busi­ness­es, homes, and for some, a com­bi­na­tion of those loss­es. Many women have lost their dig­ni­ty due to in­creased vi­o­lence in the home. Many lit­tle girls and boys have lost their in­no­cence to an in­crease in in­cest and sex­u­al abuse. Sui­cide rates have in­creased. Many who suf­fer from de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety have lost a fur­ther sense of self and hope.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day (IWD) Caribbean Tech Sum­mit 2022, host­ed by Google Women Tech­mak­ers, Google De­vel­op­er Groups and Women in Tech Caribbean, took place mere weeks ago and WE had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­verse with the or­ga­niz­ing com­mit­tee, and cap­ture the ‘true band­width’ of this 6-day Sum­mit. Speak­ers and part­ners hailed from 10 Caribbean coun­tries in­clud­ing Ja­maica, Trinidad and To­ba­go, Guyana, Bar­ba­dos, St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Guade­loupe, the Ba­hamas, Suri­name, Brazil and Haiti.

When Louis Lee Sing start­ed the North Coast Jazz and Her­itage Fes­ti­val in 2017 he en­vi­sioned ral­ly­ing the qui­et rur­al com­mu­ni­ty of Blan­chisseuse to cre­ate a fore­most va­ca­tion des­ti­na­tion com­plete with an en­vi­able bed-and-break­fast in­dus­try and en­ter­tain­ment fa­cil­i­ties.

This Moth­er’s Day, Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed brings you two first-per­son ac­counts on moth­er­ing by moth­ers and grand­moth­ers.

With a land­mass of on­ly 5,131 km², Trinidad & To­ba­go does not pos­sess gi­gan­tic wa­ter­falls like An­gel Falls, Venezuela; Tres Her­manas Falls, Pe­ru or Olo'up­e­na Falls in Hawaii. But while those three are the tallest drops of wa­ter and are among the world's pic­turesque sites, they are dan­ger­ous to take on for a bit of leisure.