Civ­il so­ci­ety in Trinidad and To­ba­go has al­ways been dri­ven by pas­sion, and NGO Veni Ap­waan was born out of a clear-eyed un­der­stand­ing that pas­sion alone is not enough. At a time when com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions were de­liv­er­ing vi­tal ser­vices with lim­it­ed sys­tems, train­ing, or sup­port, Veni Ap­waan emerged to pro­fes­sion­alise the sec­tor from the in­side out.

Is­hana Edgar, an 18-year-old sec­ond-year Busi­ness Man­age­ment stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean, walked away with the pres­ti­gious ti­tle of Miss Cen­tral Trinidad when the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CCC) staged its mar­quee event at the Cou­va Car­ni­val Cen­tre on Sat­ur­day.

In the qui­et neigh­bour­hood of Fed­er­a­tion Park, the pul­sat­ing heart of Car­ni­val now beats from with­in the walls of the Art So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go head­quar­ters. Cur­rent­ly on dis­play is Din­go­lay, an ex­hi­bi­tion that trans­forms the gallery space in­to a vi­brant trib­ute to the colour, ca­dence and cul­tur­al pow­er of Trin­ba­go Car­ni­val.