The
Member of Parliament for Tunapuna and Deputy Speaker for the House of
Representatives – Mr. Esmond Forde was the feature speaker for this
first Graduation Ceremony. Also present, and herself a proud graduate
from the programme, was Ms. Monica Ferguson, Chairman of the Upper El
Dorado Village Council. The current President of WAND – Ms. Nicole Galt
and the immediate past-President of WAND, Mrs. Jan Ryan together with
other WANDies were all very happy participants on the day.
UTT
Senior Instructor – Laurice Phillips who was in charge of the UTT
student teachers and who developed much of the Computer Literacy course
material can be seen in picture wand3. Regrettably, the student
teachers from UTT’s Masters Programme had exams and were not able to
attend either of the two ceremonies but we will send a list of all the
various teachers separately as they must be given their just due as the
ones who volunteered to impart some of their knowledge to the students.
Based upon feedback received from the very appreciative graduating
students and my own questioning of them to get an idea of what they had
learnt, our volunteer teachers clearly did a fantastic job. Laurice was
almost bursting with pride!
To
the right in that same picture is Mr. Roy Cape – who started life in a
local orphanage, has become a famous local musician, and is today a
philanthropist through his Roy Cape Foundation. Tuesday 18th April happened to be his 75th birthday
and the attendees all sang “Happy Birthday” for him. WAND and UTT will
in fact be partnering with the Roy Cape Foundation and the Ministry of
National Security to introduce music education to the same Community
Centres in which we are presently seeking to offer Computer Literacy
education. Through these types of initiatives we hope to further
develop our Communities at the “grass roots” level and to make them
equal partners in Trinidad and Tobago’s development.
Mention must also be made of Mr. Muhammed (“Anwar”) Baksh who can be seen to the right of picture wand4. Without his ongoing efforts it is highly unlikely that we could have successfully completed these programmes. During her address, Mrs. Nicole Galt, President of WAND also recognized the critical contributions of Professor Valerie Stoute, Mrs. Ria Vargas and the team of volunteer UTT IT Technicians, and the Ministry of Community Development whose “upfront” contributions were essential to the formation of the partnership and the establishment of the Computer Room with computers generously donated by Prices Foundation with Internet connectivity provided free-of-charge by FLOW. All in all, one of the best examples of how much can be achieved through cooperation and commitment!
