The Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SLWA) was found­ed in 1950 by a group of deeply pas­sion­ate women ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing for our na­tion’s most vul­ner­a­ble. Over the years the as­so­ci­a­tion has en­gaged in nu­mer­ous projects and ini­tia­tives aimed at sup­port­ing and em­pow­er­ing those most in need.

In the spir­it of the 2024 In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day theme “In­spire In­clu­sion”, we are ho­n­oured to high­light two of our most im­pact­ful projects fo­cused on up­lift­ing our na­tion’s women.

Hand­bag Project

The an­nu­al Hand­bag Project was born out of the de­sire to ho­n­our and sup­port women who have made the in­cred­i­bly dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion to leave abu­sive re­la­tion­ships and re­build their lives. Start­ed in 2020, the project is aimed at up­lift­ing the spir­its of abused women by re­mind­ing them of their val­ue, beau­ty and place in so­ci­ety by pro­vid­ing them with ful­ly stocked hand­bags.

For the last three years, our mem­ber­ship has do­nat­ed new, or gen­tly used hand­bags filled with items such as lo­tions, soaps, san­i­tary prod­ucts, make-up, per­fumes and oth­er small lux­u­ries. These hand­bags are pro­vid­ed for dis­tri­b­u­tion to The Shel­ter and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions that sup­port women who are vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

The Hand­bag Project has be­come a much beloved one by our mem­ber­ship and con­tin­ues to grow year by year. Its suc­cess serves as a tes­ta­ment that some­times it is the small­est things that can fill the wea­ri­est hearts with hope.

Pe­ri­od Panty Project

As a women’s or­gan­i­sa­tion, we be­lieve that no girl should be ex­clud­ed due to her in­abil­i­ty to ac­cess men­stru­al prod­ucts. Sta­tis­tics show that 20 per cent of women in T&T do not have the funds to af­ford men­stru­al prod­ucts. For young girls, this of­ten re­sults in them be­ing forced to miss out on school and oth­er so­cial ac­tiv­i­ties. In ef­forts to com­bat pe­ri­od pover­ty, we teamed up with Ren­tok­il Ini­tial to pur­chase and dis­trib­ute reusable pe­ri­od panties to our na­tion’s young women in need.

The Pe­ri­od Panty Project was launched in 2023 and suc­cess­ful­ly out­fit­ted 150 school-aged girls with five pairs of reusable cot­ton men­stru­al panties each, to en­sure they would not be ex­clud­ed from their dai­ly ac­tiv­i­ties due to their pe­ri­od.  Al­though still in its in­fan­cy, we are com­mit­ted to the growth and longevi­ty of this much-need­ed ini­tia­tive.

The SLWA con­tin­ues to sup­port our na­tion’s most vul­ner­a­ble women whether through our spe­cial­i­ty projects or by ful­fill­ing in­di­vid­ual re­quests. We rou­tine­ly work with many of our na­tion’s most in­flu­en­tial woman-fo­cused or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Sin­gle Moth­ers As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Women of the Soil, and The Shel­ter.

As an or­gan­i­sa­tion es­tab­lished and run by women, the caus­es and ini­tia­tives to im­prove women’s lives in our na­tion hold a spe­cial place in our hearts. Through our work, ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion for help­ing oth­ers, we stand proud in know­ing we are tak­ing an ac­tive role in the up­lift­ment of women in T&T.