Michelle Loubon

Au­di­ences were left en­rap­tured when Ald­wyn Roberts (Lord Kitch­en­er) sang hits like Rain­o­ra­ma, and Au­drey with the fa­mous line- "Where you get that sug­ar? The spir­it of Roberts was rekin­dled when pan­nist Dane Gul­ston and singer Adri­an Philbert in­voked some of his songs. Oc­ca­sion was the Young Women's Chris­t­ian As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (YW­CA) fund-rais­er/Parang Break­fast at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's, last Sat­ur­day. Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards, wife of Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, and Za­lay­har Has­sanali were among the il­lus­tri­ous guests soak­ing in the mu­sic. Reign­ing 2011 band Los Alum­nos de San Juan and Pe­dro Leza­ma joined the line-up as they en­ter­tained guests.

It was al­so an op­por­tu­ni­ty to sen­si­tise so­ci­ety to so­cial is­sues like do­mes­tic vi­o­lence against women. The theme of the gen­der-based an­ti-vi­o­lence cam­paign-In Her Shoes. In the back­ground, a Christ­mas tree fes­tooned with gold­en balls added to the spir­it of the sea­son. As guests munched on beef and chick­en pastelles, they en­joyed tra­di­tion­al and con­tem­po­rary parang mu­sic. They even sang along to a med­ley by the late Lord Kitch­en­er (Ald­wyn Roberts). Gul­ston thrilled on his tenor pan as guests con­tin­ued savour­ing a smor­gas­bord of break­fast dain­ties like pots of cher­ry jam. Philbert crooned a slew of bal­lads which stirred agape and ro­man­tic love. Los Alum­nos de San Juan looked fetch­ing in their Christ­mas colours of green and gold. Cu­a­tros en­hanced vo­cals.

First vice pres­i­dent Joy Du­mas said: "The Parang Break­fast was de­signed to beat the cur­few. Parang peo­ple's ac­tiv­i­ties have been cur­tailed and they were thrilled. Lots of peo­ple are beg­ging us to have a re­peat." Du­mas said she was buoyed by Ramjohn-Richards' re­sponse. Du­mas said: "She on­ly came for an hour. But she was en­joy­ing her­self. She said, 'I am not go­ing any­where.'" Gales of laugh­ter swept the ta­ble at her parang/break­fast de­ci­sion.

Com­ment­ing on In Her Shoes project, Du­mas added: "It is meant to show peo­ple how they can walk out of the abuse and in­to some­thing nice and new. It was in­tend­ed to give you courage and show you the way for­ward. It was to help you move for­ward with your life. Re­gard­less of any­thing, you must have the con­fi­dence to make it on your own. It was al­so a fund-rais­er to as­sist women with is­sues when they feel they can't make it any­more." Among those present and en­joy­ing them­selves to the hilt were Dr Ralph Hoyte, Grace Tal­ma and Dave Han­nays.

About In Her Shoes

The ex­hi­bi­tion took place on the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, on Mon­day. There are ex­hibits of shoes and next to each shoe there is a quo­ta­tion around vi­o­lence and mov­ing in­to a freer, sen­si­tive world. A sim­i­lar ex­hi­bi­tion was mount­ed at Hilton Trinidad. A book­mark chal­lenged women to imag­ine do­mes­tic vi­o­lence as "a fad­ed mem­o­ry of a long gone era. Stomp out D Vi­o­lence/D Pain/Tears/ Phys­i­cal and Men­tal Abuse. Be strong/free and in charge of your life." The YW­CA seeks to em­pow­er women and as­sist them in de­vel­op­ing skills to make pos­i­tive dif­fer­ences. They al­so of­fer hos­tel ser­vices for young women un­der 30, ear­ly child­hood ed­u­ca­tion, HIV/Aids aware­ness, com­mu­ni­ty out­reach and youth net­work­ing.