An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Hun­dreds of fe­male po­lice of­fi­cers, as well as em­ploy­ees from the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, oth­er min­istries and state agen­cies, turned out to par­tic­i­pate in the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day (IWD) walk around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

They were joined by act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Jear­lean John, Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin, Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Suzette Mar­tin and Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er Clive Clarke.

De­liv­er­ing brief re­marks fol­low­ing the walk, Ben­jamin ad­vised those in ser­vice to the na­tion, “to take care of their health.”

She ac­knowl­edged that women were the main builders of so­ci­ety.

“We are the back­bone of our homes, but some­times we for­get our­selves. So, I want to tell every woman out­side there to take care of your­self. Give to gain, but re­mem­ber your­self as well.”

Point­ing to the cam­paign theme of “Give To Gain,” Ben­jamin urged women not to over­look them­selves in the process of dai­ly liv­ing.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) in charge of Op­er­a­tions, Suzette Mar­tin, sought to in­spire women through­out.

“We con­tin­ue to need to in­spire and to en­cour­age women in T&T that lead­er­ship is pos­si­ble. To­day, we cel­e­brate our strength, re­silience and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to ser­vice,” she said.

“Every day, the women of the TTPS con­tin­ue to break bar­ri­ers, lead with courage and make mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tions to polic­ing and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.”

She called on peo­ple to con­tin­ue to “up­lift, men­tor and sup­port one an­oth­er by in­vest­ing in each oth­er’s growth and suc­cess.”

Mar­tin added, “We strength­en not on­ly our or­gan­i­sa­tion, but the com­mu­ni­ties we serve. I en­cour­age every woman to re­main con­fi­dent in her pur­pose, bold in her lead­er­ship, and proud of the role she plays in shap­ing a safer and stronger T&T.”

Stand­ing proud­ly with his fe­male coun­ter­parts fol­low­ing the walk, Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er Clive Clarke al­so com­mend­ed and en­cour­aged all women to look af­ter their health.

IWD is a glob­al ob­ser­vance that cel­e­brates women’s achieve­ments and ad­vo­cates for gen­der equal­i­ty.

Cel­e­brat­ed on March 8 an­nu­al­ly, this year’s glob­al theme was ti­tled: Rights. Jus­tice. Ac­tion. For ALL Women and Girls.

T&T joined the rest of the world in host­ing a se­ries of events this year, which in­clud­ed yes­ter­day’s IWD Walk host­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment.