Root­ed in a phi­los­o­phy that links so­cial in­vest­ment to na­tion­al progress, the African Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion (AWA) con­tin­ues to ex­pand its foot­print in com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment with a blend of cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion, en­tre­pre­neur­ship and out­reach.

“We be­lieve that em­pow­er­ing women and in­vest­ing in chil­dren cre­ate a fu­ture where every­one gains," is more than a guid­ing state­ment for the or­gan­i­sa­tion—it is the op­er­a­tional frame­work that has shaped its evo­lu­tion since its found­ing in the 1980s by Jan­ice Pa­tri­cia McLeod. For­malised as a non-prof­it in 2009, AWA has steadi­ly built in­sti­tu­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty, be­com­ing part of the In­ter­club of Trinidad and To­ba­go in 2018 and earn­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts in 2021.

At the core of its mis­sion is a clear­ly ar­tic­u­lat­ed vi­sion: a com­mu­ni­ty of peo­ple of African her­itage ful­ly in­te­grat­ed in­to the so­cial and eco­nom­ic fab­ric of Trinidad and To­ba­go, con­tribut­ing mean­ing­ful­ly to sus­tain­able na­tion­al and re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment. This vi­sion is op­er­a­tionalised through pro­grammes that em­pha­sise ed­u­ca­tion, em­pow­er­ment and in­ter­gen­er­a­tional en­gage­ment.

Sym­bol­ism plays a cen­tral role in AWA’s iden­ti­ty. Its mot­to, “Love nev­er los­es its way home,” is de­rived from the Ghana­ian Adinkra sym­bol Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan, re­flect­ing a com­mit­ment to cul­tur­al ground­ing even as the or­gan­i­sa­tion pur­sues mod­ern de­vel­op­ment goals. That bal­ance is ev­i­dent across its port­fo­lio of ini­tia­tives.

On the en­ter­prise side, AWA has launched small-scale ven­tures such as AWA Juices, AWA Herbs and AWA Spices, along­side its an­nu­al Sheroes Cal­en­dar, each de­signed to gen­er­ate in­come while re­in­forc­ing cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. Its event cal­en­dar has be­come a sta­ple in com­mu­ni­ty cir­cles, fea­tur­ing Nel­son Is­land tours, African-themed lunch­es, Cul­tur­al Night col­lab­o­ra­tions and a con­sis­tent pres­ence at the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage.

Equal­ly sig­nif­i­cant is its out­reach work. Through its Love Lights af­ter-school pro­gramme and projects such as the re­fur­bish­ment of Pic­cadil­ly Gov­ern­ment School, tablet do­na­tion dri­ves for rur­al pri­ma­ry schools and an­nu­al Christ­mas ini­tia­tives at the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre and the Women’s Prison, AWA has po­si­tioned it­self as a hands-on de­vel­op­ment or­gan­i­sa­tion rather than a pure­ly ad­vo­ca­cy-dri­ven body.

Lead­er­ship re­mains cen­tral to sus­tain­ing that mo­men­tum. Un­der the pres­i­den­cy of Lil­la Williams, sup­port­ed by an ex­ec­u­tive team in­clud­ing Mar­garet Jones, Mar­i­lyn Baynes, Tene Re­ece, Mar­garet Hinds, Is­lynne Ann Thomas, Kath­leen Alex-Der­rick and Car­line Gumbs, the or­gan­i­sa­tion has placed re­newed em­pha­sis on struc­tured fundrais­ing to en­sure the longevi­ty of its pro­grammes. For­mer head of events and fundrais­ing Kather­ine Agong played a key role in shap­ing that ap­proach, in­clud­ing the launch of the Nu­bian High Tea fundrais­er.

Now en­ter­ing its sec­ond year, the Nu­bian High Tea has be­come a flag­ship event on AWA’s cal­en­dar. Sched­uled for May 9 at the Li­ons Cul­tur­al Cen­tre, the fundrais­er will run from 3 pm to 6 pm and is ex­pect­ed to blend el­e­gance with cul­tur­al pride un­der the theme “Ex­pe­ri­ence El­e­gance—Sip with Pride.”

The event, guid­ed by Williams and new­ly ap­point­ed head of events and fundrais­ing Gem­ma Casimir-Red­man, is de­signed not on­ly as a so­cial gath­er­ing but as a strate­gic rev­enue stream. Pro­ceeds will sup­port the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s Her­itage Gar­den Project and Head­quar­ters, as well as its ed­u­ca­tion and out­reach ini­tia­tives.

Pa­trons can ex­pect a cu­rat­ed ex­pe­ri­ence that goes be­yond the tra­di­tion­al high tea for­mat. The pro­gramme in­cludes an African fash­ion show, a spice mar­ket show­cas­ing lo­cal­ly pro­duced goods, live steel­pan and African drum­ming, guest per­for­mances, give­aways and a grand raf­fle. The dress code—African at­tire—fur­ther re­in­forces the event’s cul­tur­al po­si­tion­ing.

Tick­ets, priced at $350, are avail­able in ad­vance through out­lets in­clud­ing Screen Stars in Bel­mont and Se­lec­tion House on Fred­er­ick Street, as well as di­rect­ly from AWA mem­bers.