Photo: DA Vibes Thirteen Dominican women were recognized at the Exceptional Women’s Award Ceremony held at the Old Mill Cultural Centre on Wednesday night. The ceremony which was organized by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, Family & Gender Affairs, formed part of the activities for International Women’s Day celebrated on Friday 8th March.
The award recipients were Bishop Alice Jacob and Bertha Joseph for Church, and for Excellence in Agriculture, Lilian Marcellin, Elizabeth and Cyril Alfred and Helena Williams. Gloria Walsh and Vena Royer received the ‘Community Development Award’ while Erma Lafond of Canefield, Niomi John of Goodwill and Police Officer, Vernelle Shillingford received the ‘family life’ awards. President of the Dominica Cancer Society Yvonne Alexander, wife of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, Melissa Skerrit, and Cheryl Rolle of Sagicor, received leadership awards. One of the awardees, Naomi John said she owed her award to her contribution made to children over the years. She said, “I was awarded based on my contribution to some of the young children”. According to John, her sister passed her away 10 years ago and she took in her daughter. She added that because of her passion for children, and the less fortunate, she does a hand-sub every year, and uses the proceeds to send at least at least one child to school”. “That is what I do on a yearly basis, that’s one of my aims,” she stated. Childcare advocate Gloria Walsh said she was extremely happy to receive this award. Walsh said, “I am feeling very elated, I must say, because it has been a long, tiring road in doing that kind of a work , but with God, all things are possible, and despite of all my financial challenges, I have managed to stay afloat doing the work I have to do with the children and the youth”. She mentioned that she is continuing to work with young people and noted that on April 7, they will be embarking on a beatification project. She said, “In Another aspect of our program, we are getting the young people to volunteer in different categories”. Meantime, Social Development Planner in the Ministry of Planning, Dr. Kyra Paul, who was a guest speaker at the ceremony said Dominican women, like women around the world, regularly suffer violations of their human rights throughout their lives and, “they are often unaware that they are victims or perhaps indirect perpetrators of the phenomenon by our own deportments or ignorance.” According to her, women almost universally have primary responsibility for unpaid household labour and family care responsibilities that restrict their abilities to participate in paid work, and even when women do work in the public space, “child birth exacerbates the wage gender gap and puts a significant dent in women’s lifetime earnings, relative to other workers.” Paul added that while there is a shift in school enrollment and completion for young girls, the same does not apply for boys. “When our young boys drop out from school, abuse drugs, suffer from mental illness, are imprisoned, it affects the well-being of the entire society and the economy, and they don’t have the benefits of equality either”.
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