The Hy­att Re­gency Ball­room shim­mered in soft blush tones last week­end as 800 el­e­gant­ly dressed women gath­ered for the Women’s Ac­tion for New Di­rec­tion (WAND) an­nu­al Christ­mas Lun­cheon. The sold-out event—themed La Vie en Rose —was a cel­e­bra­tion of op­ti­mism, phil­an­thropy and the un­mis­tak­able pow­er of women com­ing to­geth­er for a cause.

With Parisian-in­spired flair, rose-tint­ed glass­es, and a sense of uni­ty that flowed from ta­ble to ta­ble, the lun­cheon brought a glit­ter­ing end to WAND’s year of un­prece­dent­ed growth and com­mu­ni­ty out­reach.

In her keynote ad­dress, WAND Pres­i­dent Aman­da Jar­dine re­flect­ed on the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s re­mark­able stride from host­ing a hand­ful of events each year to four ma­jor fundrais­ers in 2025 alone—each de­signed to widen WAND’s foot­print across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Among this year’s sig­na­ture ini­tia­tives were:

Hole in WAND Golf Tour­na­ment—A spir­it­ed com­pe­ti­tion fea­tur­ing 48 teams at the Pointe-à-Pierre Golf Club.

Bub­bles & Benev­o­lence Tea Par­ty—A new ef­fort that brought WAND’s in­flu­ence to Cen­tral and South Trinidad, staged at Free­bird Restau­rant.

Den­im & Di­a­monds Par­ty at VICE—A glit­ter­ing night sup­port­ed by en­ter­tain­ers Fay-Ann Lyons, Bun­ji Gar­lin and lead­ing DJs.

La Vie en Rose Christ­mas Lun­cheon—The cap­stone event that at­tract­ed women from ma­jor cor­po­rate hous­es in­clud­ing Re­pub­lic Bank, Massy, EY, LJ Williams, RBC, First Cit­i­zens, Mer­a­ki, Guardian Group and Artemis En­er­gy.

To­geth­er, these fundrais­ers helped fu­el a port­fo­lio of com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven projects that con­tin­ue to trans­form lives through­out the coun­try.

WAND’s ethos—that kind­ness can re­shape com­mu­ni­ties—was ev­i­dent in sev­er­al key ini­tia­tives ex­e­cut­ed this year.

Pages of Hope: Book­cas­es filled with up­lift­ing, ed­u­ca­tion­al ma­te­r­i­al were in­stalled in wait­ing rooms at the Trinidad & To­ba­go Can­cer Cen­tre South and Cau­ra Pal­lia­tive Hos­pi­tal, of­fer­ing com­fort and dis­trac­tion for pa­tients and fam­i­lies.

Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary School Par­ents’ Lun­cheon: A WAND-spon­sored Moth­er’s and Fa­ther’s Day cel­e­bra­tion strength­ened school–home part­ner­ships and ac­knowl­edged the cen­tral role par­ents play in stu­dent suc­cess.

LIFE Cen­tre Sen­so­ry Room: With WAND’s sup­port, the Sen­so­ry Room at the LIFE Cen­tre in Cas­cade was re­fur­bished to pro­vide a safe, ther­a­peu­tic en­vi­ron­ment for neu­ro­di­ver­gent stu­dents.

SER­VOL Ear­ly Child­hood Care & Ed­u­ca­tion Re­search Li­brary: WAND con­tributed to out­fit­ting a re­search space at SER­VOL’s Re­gion­al Train­ing and Re­source Cen­ter, sup­port­ing ed­u­ca­tors who shape the na­tion’s youngest learn­ers.

Her Fu­ture, Her Frame—St Jude’s Home for Girls: In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Caribbean Film Fes­ti­val’s Young, Gift­ed & Caribbean pro­gramme, WAND spon­sored film train­ing for girls at St. Jude’s Home, giv­ing them tools to ex­plore sto­ry­telling, cre­ativ­i­ty and con­fi­dence.

Look­ing ahead, WAND un­veiled its most am­bi­tious un­der­tak­ing yet—The Gift of Sight, a two-part vi­sion care ini­tia­tive aimed at restor­ing hope and in­de­pen­dence to the most vul­ner­a­ble.

1. Life-Chang­ing Surg­eries:

In part­ner­ship with the Min­istry of Health, WAND com­mit­ted $600,000 to sub­sidise oph­thalmic surg­eries—in­clud­ing cataract, vit­reo-reti­nal, glau­co­ma and di­a­bet­ic-re­lat­ed pro­ce­dures—through pri­vate fa­cil­i­ties. The ef­fort is ex­pect­ed to re­duce pub­lic hos­pi­tal wait­ing lists and give hun­dreds of cit­i­zens the gift of re­stored vi­sion.

2. Pri­ma­ry School Vi­sion Screen­ing:

With sup­port from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, WAND is in­vest­ing $300,000 to con­duct na­tion­wide eye screen­ings in pri­ma­ry schools. Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 600 chil­dren will re­ceive free pre­scrip­tion glass­es through col­lab­o­ra­tions with Op­tometrists To­day and Val­ue Op­ti­cal — en­sur­ing no child’s aca­d­e­m­ic po­ten­tial is dimmed by poor eye­sight.

To­geth­er, these pro­grammes aim not on­ly to treat ur­gent med­ical needs but to pro­tect the fu­ture of young learn­ers across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Ad­dress­ing the sea of pink at the Hy­att, Jar­dine ex­pressed pro­found grat­i­tude to the cor­po­rate part­ners, donors and vol­un­teers who con­tin­ue to pow­er WAND’s mis­sion.

“We are in­cred­i­bly grate­ful for the part­ner­ships that make this pos­si­ble,” she said. “And maybe, af­ter to­day, some­one some­where will be able to say, ‘I can see clear­ly now,’ thanks to you.”