Fay­ola K J Fras­er

In No­vem­ber of last year, Ni­Na Young Lead­ers, a grass­roots or­gan­i­sa­tion fo­cused on sup­port­ing and hous­ing vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in Trinidad and To­ba­go, was in­vit­ed to a con­fer­ence in South Africa to share its pow­er­ful sto­ry.

Ni­Na was asked to par­tic­i­pate in an in­ter­na­tion­al fo­rum where glob­al ad­vo­cates gath­ered to tack­le gen­der-based vi­o­lence and among the key groups present was the #MeToo glob­al move­ment, whose lead­ers were keen to ex­pand their reach in the Caribbean and were im­me­di­ate­ly drawn to Ni­Na’s ap­proach.

Ni­Na is the brain­child of Ako­sua Dar­d­aine-Ed­wards, and its fo­cus is on sup­port­ing young women be­tween the ages of 16 and 18 who must leave the State and fos­ter care sys­tem. The or­gan­i­sa­tion pro­vides fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy, en­tre­pre­neur­ial skills, emo­tion­al sup­port, ed­u­ca­tion­al sup­port and guid­ance for women who have reached the age of 18 and are en­ter­ing the “re­al world”.

The pro­gramme has four main streams of work, Heal­ing Cen­tred Ac­tiv­i­ties, Path­ways to In­de­pen­dence, Hous­ing and Sta­bil­i­ty, and Com­mu­ni­ty and Joy. With the sup­port of grant fund­ing and oth­er do­na­tions, Dar­d­aine-Ed­wards’ mis­sion is to cre­ate re­al op­por­tu­ni­ties for these young women to flour­ish, in­clud­ing help­ing them be­come tru­ly in­de­pen­dent.

The pro­gramme has a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on these young women, in help­ing them com­plete their ed­u­ca­tion, leave abu­sive re­la­tion­ships, se­cure hous­es, and man­age their fi­nances.

This in­vi­ta­tion marked a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for the small yet im­pact­ful or­gan­i­sa­tion. What set Ni­Na apart was its unique mod­el, ground­ed in a “Sur­vival Ed” frame­work—a holis­tic phi­los­o­phy that ad­dress­es mind, body, and soul. This method, which blends in­dige­nous prac­tices with in­no­v­a­tive, com­mu­ni­ty-de­vel­oped tools, caught the at­ten­tion of #MeToo lead­ers.

Their align­ment was clear: both move­ments cre­ate safe spaces for sur­vivors’ heal­ing, equip young women with tools to re­claim their lives, and dis­man­tle sys­tems that en­able vi­o­lence. Ni­Na is the first and on­ly or­gan­i­sa­tion in the Caribbean to be in­vit­ed in­to this world­wide move­ment and net­work and stands proud to con­nect Trinidad’s voic­es to a glob­al net­work.

Be­fore be­com­ing part of the #MeToo net­work, Ni­Na un­der­went a rig­or­ous vet­ting and train­ing process. The glob­al move­ment was clear in its ex­pec­ta­tions—part­ners had to be sur­vivor-cen­tred, women-led, and cul­tur­al­ly root­ed. Ni­Na met all the cri­te­ria. They brought au­then­tic­i­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty, and a long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to af­firm­ing young women’s voic­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go. By De­cem­ber, Ni­Na be­came #MeToo’s Caribbean part­ner, join­ing a pow­er­ful col­lec­tive of or­gan­i­sa­tions from Ar­genti­na, Pe­ru, Mex­i­co, Nicaragua, Sene­gal, Con­go, Su­dan, and Haiti.

This al­liance is cru­cial to sup­port Ni­Na’s work in T&T. The or­gan­i­sa­tion now has ac­cess to a net­work of glob­al grants, in­ter­na­tion­al learn­ing cir­cles, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects. Fur­ther­more, it al­lows for ac­cess to cut­ting-edge re­sources and train­ing and gives Ni­Na a plat­form for glob­al ad­vo­ca­cy.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, be­ing part of the #MeToo move­ment strength­ens Ni­Na’s ca­pac­i­ty at home, to sup­port sur­vivors in state care through trau­ma-in­formed care. Ac­cord­ing to founder Dar­d­ain-Ed­wards, “be­ing part of #MeToo’s net­work means our girls will learn not just to sur­vive, but to lead the charge against vi­o­lence”.

Meet­ing with key fig­ures like Tarana Burke, founder of MeToo, and oth­er ex­ec­u­tives in Cape Town of­fered a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to share Ni­Na’s work while learn­ing from oth­ers. The in­ter­est in Ni­Na’s work felt val­i­dat­ing, and as Dar­d­ain-Ed­wards says, “For a small or­gan­i­sa­tion, hav­ing that recog­ni­tion for the work we do felt good”.

One of the most valu­able as­pects of the part­ner­ship is the ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing sup­port. Vol­un­teers and staff from Ni­Na can now par­tic­i­pate in in­ter­na­tion­al work­shops where they ex­plore what sys­tems are work­ing in oth­er coun­tries and how they might adapt these ideas lo­cal­ly.

Dar­d­ain-Ed­wards her­self is in­volved in learn­ing cir­cles with part­ners from Latin Amer­i­ca and Africa, help­ing to build a knowl­edge bridge be­tween the Caribbean and the glob­al south. As a Black-run and Black-led or­gan­i­sa­tion, Ni­na al­so fits square­ly in­to #MeToo’s goal of ex­pand­ing with­in the di­as­po­ra. With fund­ing sources from the US in­creas­ing­ly in­flu­enced by shift­ing po­lit­i­cal ide­olo­gies, Ni­Na need­ed to piv­ot fast. The al­liance with MeToo of­fers al­ter­na­tive fund­ing streams and glob­al vis­i­bil­i­ty, en­sur­ing that the work doesn’t stall.

In Sep­tem­ber, the next in-per­son con­ven­ing of the MeToo net­work will take place in Mex­i­co. There, Ni­Na hopes to map out a strate­gic path for­ward, iden­ti­fy­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion and shared im­pact. But the work con­tin­ues at home too.

Last week­end, Ni­Na host­ed its an­nu­al re­treat in To­ba­go, where they plan to in­tro­duce some of the heal­ing tools and meth­ods shared through MeToo learn­ing cir­cles to 25 young women par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pro­gramme.

These young women are the heart­beat of Ni­Na’s mis­sion and the Ni­Na-#MeToo part­ner­ship is a pro­found re­minder that all coun­tries face the same bat­tle to fight against GBV.

Across the globe, com­mu­ni­ties are grap­pling with the same sys­temic is­sues, but by forg­ing in­ter­na­tion­al ties, shar­ing tools, and stand­ing to­geth­er with a uni­fied voice, or­gan­i­sa­tions like Ni­Na and #MeToo are prov­ing that heal­ing, jus­tice, and trans­for­ma­tion are not just pos­si­ble—they are hap­pen­ing.