SAN­DRA L BLOOD

British pro­fes­sor and hu­man­i­tar­i­an Dr Ab­h­nash K Bains, founder and CEO of Ishka­ma Glob­al Change (IGC), vis­it­ed T&T in Ju­ly to co-host a pow­er­ful, mul­ti-na­tion­al event in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA).

Per­son­al­ly in­vit­ed by TTMA CEO Dr Mahin­dra Ramesh Ramdeen to at­tend the 26th Trade and In­vest­ment Con­ven­tion (TIC), Dr Bains brought with her an 11-mem­ber del­e­ga­tion from the UK, along with par­tic­i­pants from South Africa, In­dia, the Nether­lands, and vir­tu­al guests from Spain, the Unit­ed States, Ar­genti­na, and Mau­ri­tius. The main TIC event took place from Ju­ly 17–20 at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence (COE) in Ma­coya, while IGC ac­tiv­i­ties were host­ed at the Radis­son Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain.

IGC’s 2nd an­nu­al glob­al busi­ness con­ven­tion, “Co­op­er­a­tives Build a Bet­ter World,” was held on Ju­ly 18 and 19 and in­clud­ed high-im­pact busi­ness net­work­ing ses­sions, keynote pan­els, and awards pre­sen­ta­tions. It opened with a high-lev­el cock­tail re­cep­tion on Ju­ly 16, at­tend­ed by Cab­i­net min­is­ters, diplo­mats, TTMA ex­ec­u­tives, and IGC guests.

In her open­ing re­marks, Dr Bains—an award-win­ning com­mu­ni­ty leader and en­tre­pre­neur—com­mend­ed the spir­it of in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion:

“This gath­er­ing is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of uni­ty and shared pur­pose. We be­lieve that glob­al co­op­er­a­tion can ig­nite pos­i­tive change, el­e­vate in­no­va­tion, and ac­cel­er­ate progress.”

Key speak­ers in­clud­ed Dr An­gela Soong, Dr Leela Ram­s­ingh, Lord Ra­mi Ranger, HRH Princess Kendal Am­i­nat, Dr Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie, Dr Max­ine Kerr, and Amb Dr An­drew, among many oth­ers. High­lights in­clud­ed the TTMA Buy­ers’ Cock­tail, speak­er ses­sions on glob­al chal­lenges, and the IGC Glob­al Awards Gala Night, fea­tur­ing en­ter­tain­ment from Em­press Ajé and mu­sic by Kuldeep Au­dio & Mul­ti­me­dia Rentals.

A ma­jor mile­stone of the event was the launch of IGC’s first cof­fee ta­ble pub­li­ca­tion, The Book of Pros­per­i­ty, now avail­able via IGC plat­forms, Barnes & No­ble, Ama­zon.com, and Ama­zon UK.

On Ju­ly 21, IGC al­so host­ed a ro­bust Women’s Lead­er­ship Meet­ing, led by Dr.Soong and IGC T&T Ad­vi­so­ry Chair Dr Ram­s­ingh, with par­tic­i­pa­tion from lead­ing NGO heads. The ses­sion fo­cused on press­ing glob­al is­sues af­fect­ing women and girls, gen­er­at­ing ideas for fu­ture col­lab­o­ra­tions.

Fol­low­ing the for­mal events, Dr. Bains and her del­e­ga­tion ex­plored T&T’s rich cul­tur­al land­scape. High­lights in­clud­ed:

• Pi­geon Point beach and sam­pling lo­cal “dou­bles” in To­ba­go

• Vis­its to Gu­rud­wara Sahib T&T Sikh Tem­ple, Mount St Bene­dict Abbey, Dat­ta­treya Tem­ple (home to the tallest Hanu­man Mur­ti in the West­ern Hemi­sphere), and the Tem­ple in the Sea, host­ed by Dr Ram­s­ingh and sug­gest­ed by Dutch del­e­gate Rupha Sard­joe

• Au­then­tic Trin­bag­on­ian meals pre­pared by Dr Ram­s­ingh’s hus­band

The suc­cess of the event was made pos­si­ble by a com­mit­ted lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al team, in­clud­ing Dr Mi­nakshi Koch, Avion Prout, Kuldeep Per­sad, Rupha Sard­joe, and IGC’s core or­gan­is­ing leads Dr Ram­s­ingh and Dr Soong.

Dr Bains ex­tend­ed heart­felt thanks to Sha­bana Ruiz-Ra­ja, Kam­la Tewarie, Dr La­dy Wynett Pe­ters, CNC3’s Ryan Ba­choo and Nekeisha Alexan­der, Vibe CT105.1FM’s Joel Mor­ris, and Free­dom 106.5FM’s Melis­sa Stanis­claus for their sup­port.

2025 IGC Glob­al Awardees

Change­mak­ers

Men­tor Mag­nate Award: Min­is­ter Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj (Sacha)

Am­bas­sador of the Year: Dr Srini­vas Kaveti

IGC Su­per Con­nec­tor Award: Dr Mahin­dra Ramesh Ramdeen

Al­ly Award: HC Dr Pradeep Singh Ra­jpuro­hit

Gen­der Par­i­ty Pi­o­neer: Dr Prakash Lal

Cul­tur­al Cham­pi­on Award: Dr Man­ju Lod­ha

Health­care Ad­vo­ca­cy Ex­cel­lence: Dr Gee­ta Khubchan­dani

En­vi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship Award: Shoaib Menon Habib

In­ter­na­tion­al Change­mak­er: Amb. Dr Mi­nakshi Koch

Busi­ness Col­lab­o­ra­tor of the Year: Shah­naz Hu­sain

CEO Ap­pre­ci­a­tion Awards

Nicole Far­rell

Sha­bana Az­iz Ra­jan

Kam­la Tewarie

Dr Bains praised the warmth of the Trin­bagoian peo­ple, the cul­tur­al hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and the shared com­mit­ment to glob­al de­vel­op­ment and sus­tain­able in­no­va­tion.

“This con­ven­tion was a re­sound­ing suc­cess, host­ed in a vi­brant and wel­com­ing set­ting. The con­tri­bu­tions of our glob­al vi­sion­ar­ies aligned per­fect­ly with the Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals, fur­ther­ing our mis­sion to cre­ate last­ing, pos­i­tive change.”