Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

“Pro­fes­sion­al women with car­ing at­ti­tudes and the re­solve to en­hance and strength­en op­por­tu­ni­ties for lifestyle changes of those less for­tu­nate, be­ing mind­ful of their par­tic­u­lar needs.” This is ethos of Women in Ac­tion for Needy and Des­ti­tute (WAND).

Gen­e­sis of WAND

In 1998, over lunch with four friends and now the found­ing mem­bers, Si­mone de la Bastide, April Bermudez, Jan Ryan and Pen­ny Elias, dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of cre­at­ing an im­pact­ing women’s char­i­ta­ble or­ga­ni­za­tion.

Be­gin­ning with the pur­pose of as­sist­ing un­der­priv­i­leged women and chil­dren in the so­ci­ety and ac­tive­ly seek­ing the means to help those who have fall­en. With the as­sis­tance of Clive Pan­tin of the Foun­da­tion for the En­hance­ment and En­rich­ment of Life (FEEL), WAND be­gan their jour­ney with a man­date, among oth­ers to en­sure that every pen­ny con­tributed be in­ject­ed in­to their projects and oth­er char­i­ta­ble works.

For the past 25 years, WAND has been rais­ing funds to aid projects aligned with their mis­sion. Some of the re­cent ini­tia­tives since 2020 in­clude Hors­es Help­ing Hu­mans, the Heights of Aripo RC School and Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tion Project, COVID feed­ing pro­gramme, Laven­tille/East POS Em­pow­er­ment project, Adopt a School Pro­gramme, St. Vin­cent de Paul, Beause­jour Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, and Learn­ing is For Every­one (LIFE).

With the lead­er­ship of its cur­rent board mem­bers: Aman­da Jar­dine (Pres­i­dent), So­raya Khan (Trea­sur­er), Lisa Naipaul (Sec­re­tary), Chris­tiana Lee (PRO), Lor­raine Fer­gu­son, Giselle Khan, Al­li­son Har­ford and Leah Fletch­er, WAND con­tin­ues to make a mean­ing­ful im­pact in the com­mu­ni­ty. 

Golf tour­na­ment rais­es funds for The Shel­ter 

“Hole in WAND,” the first ever char­i­ty golf tour­na­ment at the pic­turesque Pointe-a-Pierre Golf Club was suc­cess­ful­ly host­ed last week­end, with an im­pres­sive 44 teams com­pet­ing. It was the per­fect blend of sports­man­ship, ca­ma­raderie, and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, mak­ing it a re­sound­ing vic­to­ri­ous in­au­gur­al event!

“The Hole in WAND golf tour­na­ment aimed to raise funds for The Shel­ter, a safe haven for women and chil­dren who are vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

“Un­der the scorch­ing sun, 80 en­thu­si­as­tic tour­na­ment par­tic­i­pants teed off for an ex­hil­a­rat­ing 18-hole com­pe­ti­tion, dis­play­ing re­mark­able sports­man­ship and de­ter­mi­na­tion through­out the day. The tour­na­ment not on­ly high­light­ed a re­mark­able dis­play of golf­ing prowess but al­so cel­e­brat­ed the true spir­it of giv­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ty. 

“The high­light of the event was the award­ing of the top three teams who emerged as cham­pi­ons of the day, with the first prize go­ing to Sheris Ram­per­sad and Dr Avind Ali. We are thrilled at the tremen­dous suc­cess of our very first golf tour­na­ment,” said Lor­raine Fer­gu­son, spokesper­son for WAND.

“The amaz­ing sup­port from our par­tic­i­pants and spon­sors made this event tru­ly mem­o­rable, and we are grate­ful for their gen­eros­i­ty.”

Up next - Den­im and Di­a­monds

“WAND will be host­ing two more fundrais­ing events for the year- Den­im and Di­a­monds to be held on Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 16, and the an­nu­al Christ­mas lun­cheon will be held on Fri­day, No­vem­ber 3. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion and tick­ets, one can con­tact any mem­ber of the WAND Board.

“The suc­cess of the Hole in WAND golf tour­na­ment would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions from team and prize spon­sors. WAND re­lies en­tire­ly on char­i­ta­ble do­na­tions, and this event’s achieve­ments would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the gen­er­ous sup­port from spon­sors and the ded­i­cat­ed ef­forts of vol­un­teers,” WAND’s re­lease con­clud­ed.

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion about WAND:

http://www.wand­foun­da­tion.org/

Email: wand­foun­da­tion1990@gmail.com

FB: https://www.face­book.com/WAND­foun­da­tion