New­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Wood­land Flood Ac­tion group Kevin Hard­uar has vowed to lead his com­mu­ni­ty in the fight for a flood-re­sis­tant Wood­land dur­ing his ad­dress at the com­mu­ni­ty’s Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion on Mon­day night.

Past pres­i­dent Adesh Singh was vot­ed out when elec­tions were held two weeks ago.

Ex­press­ing grat­i­tude for the com­mu­ni­ty’s trust in him, Hard­uar un­der­scored the im­por­tance of uni­ty and re­silience in tack­ling the on­go­ing flood is­sues.

“I humbly ac­cept this po­si­tion, ful­ly recog­nis­ing that the weight of lead­er­ship is not sole­ly mine to bear,” Hard­uar said in his maid­en speech.

He added, “It is shared with each one of you who have fired up this mis­sion, who stood in the face of chal­lenges, and who worked re­lent­less­ly for our cause.”

Hard­uar ac­knowl­edged the found­ing mem­bers of the Wood­land Flood Ac­tion Group, cred­it­ing them with set­ting the ground­work for on­go­ing ef­forts to make the area safer.

He high­light­ed the night’s fes­tiv­i­ties as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of their shared mis­sion, in­spired by the Di­vali fes­ti­val’s mes­sage of hope.

“As we gath­er to cel­e­brate a night of joy and to­geth­er­ness, there is no bet­ter re­minder of our mis­sion than the spir­it of Di­vali—the fes­ti­val of lights con­quer­ing dark­ness,” Hard­uar said.

“We must be em­bod­i­ments of that hope as we il­lu­mi­nate the path to a safer, flood-re­sis­tant Wood­land,” he added.

Hard­uar al­so called for re­newed com­mu­ni­ty com­mit­ment, say­ing, “Our pur­pose tran­scends in­di­vid­ual as­pi­ra­tions, it calls for uni­fi­ca­tion. Dark­ness is but an ab­sence of light, and it is our du­ty to shine brighter to­geth­er, draw­ing on col­lec­tive skills and wis­dom.”

He al­so ex­tend­ed grat­i­tude to the guests, in­clud­ing Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayhroo and mem­bers of the PDRC and Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Cross, whose re­cent col­lab­o­ra­tions with Wood­land res­i­dents have been aimed at strength­en­ing dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness.

“Your pres­ence tonight sig­ni­fies your be­lief in our cause,” Hard­uar told the at­ten­dees.

“We look for­ward to your con­tin­ued co­op­er­a­tion, for to­geth­er we can set a pow­er­ful prece­dent in Wood­land, show­cas­ing how com­mit­ment can in­spire trans­for­ma­tive change.”

He in­vit­ed the com­mu­ni­ty to move for­ward with re­newed de­ter­mi­na­tion.

“As we light the deyas to il­lu­mi­nate the way, let us stride for­ward, light­ing the way with our re­silient light. To­geth­er, we will re­claim our space and il­lu­mi­nate the shad­ows for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions that will call Wood­land home,” he said.

Al­so at­tend­ing the func­tion was South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group pres­i­dent Ed­ward Mood­ie and Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion CEO Ann Ho­sein.