Senior Reporter
andrea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt
UWI principal, Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, received the Inspirational Advocate Award at the International Women’s Forum T&T’s (IWFTT) Inspirational Women gala at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Port-of-Spain, last Tuesday night.
The awards were bestowed on outstanding women in T&T who are role models and who have demonstrated outstanding leadership.
The other recipients were Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, who received the Inspirational Champion of Women Award, and Anika Plowden-Corentin, who received the Inspirational Emerging Leader Award.
Belle Antoine, who has been an advocate for social justice and human rights over the years, told the room of powerful women in society that she credited her family and The UWI for her success over the years.
“In truth, there is so much inequity and injustice in this world that I do not know how to keep silent. While I, as an Independence baby, might have been born with this passion against unfairness—this need for social reform—it was my family, my profession, and the UWI, that allowed this to grow and gave me the tools to do something.
“Then my profession and the UWI—always centred around regional development—gave me opportunities, including consultancy work and key positions. These had the power to change policy and direction and to represent the marginalised, the voiceless, not just in the region, but beyond, such as my work in Washington leading the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,” the UWI principal said.
Human rights advocate Mahabir-Wyatt said there are positive aspects of this country and people must recognise that.
“We live in a world where racism is paramount in terms of conflict, and you look around Trinidad and you look at all the dogma that we have, and nobody takes that on because everybody celebrates everybody else’s holidays and celebrations,” Mahabir-Wyatt emphasised.
“We are very fortunate; we don’t realise how fortunate we are, and we don’t talk about what we have. I don’t think that there is one person here that does not have in their family and extended family, people who are of other races or other religions, of other interest groups, and we take it for granted.”
Mahabir-Wyatt said she was grateful to receive the Inspirational Champion of Women Award for her work through her battered women’s shelter.
“I am in the last few years of my life. It is harvest time for me. It is just being here with people I admire, realising that some of the things that are very important to me have made a difference in people’s lives. The battered women’s shelter went far beyond where I ever dreamed it could go. I want to thank the men and women who picked up where I left off and went on to be the head of the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights,” she said.
Plowden-Corentin, who received the Inspirational Emerging Leader Award for her work with Chosen Hands, a non-profit art and wellness creative programme, said the platform allowed her to reshape the course of the lives of many young people in this country.
“Forums like these provide opportunities to continue to speak the message of hope into the lives of our future generation. Through arts and creativity, Chosen Hands mentorship initiatives were born, and Chosen Hands is now part of a global movement where we network through the international visitor’s programme to over 23 countries, with a unified vision of using art as a vehicle to create social change. Often, it takes one simple act to change the trajectory of one at-risk youth,” she said.
