KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

A deeply hum­bled Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mar yes­ter­day ded­i­cat­ed his Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go award to the na­tion’s work­ing-class cit­i­zens.

“I am very ho­n­oured and very hum­bled by this na­tion­al award that has been be­stowed up­on me,” he said fol­low­ing the Na­tion­al Awards Cer­e­mo­ny at Queen’s Hall, Port-of-Spain.

“I would like to ded­i­cate this to the work­ing peo­ple, the or­di­nary peo­ple and the grass­roots peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause with­out them I would not be who I am to­day.

“In my life­time, I have been strug­gling for jus­tice, equal­i­ty, eq­ui­ty, uni­ty and the pro­mo­tion of greater di­ver­si­ty in our coun­try.”

Mark al­so cred­it­ed his years in the trade union move­ment for shap­ing his po­lit­i­cal out­look, not­ing that his work fo­cused on work­ers’ rights, ed­u­ca­tion and em­pow­er­ment.

He said whether serv­ing in a trade union, po­lit­i­cal par­ty or Par­lia­ment, his ob­jec­tive had al­ways been to im­prove the qual­i­ty of life and stan­dard of liv­ing of or­di­nary cit­i­zens.

Mark, Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan re­ceived the ORTTT, the na­tion’s high­est award con­ferred for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to the na­tion.

They were among 35 peo­ple ho­n­oured for con­tri­bu­tions in pub­lic ser­vice, law, ed­u­ca­tion, jour­nal­ism, cul­ture, mu­sic, sport, com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment and hu­man­i­tar­i­an ser­vice.

Mark, one of the longest-serv­ing sen­a­tors in the coun­try’s his­to­ry, has served as an Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor, gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and now Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate.

Boodoos­ingh, ap­point­ed Chief Jus­tice in 2025, was recog­nised for a le­gal and ju­di­cial ca­reer span­ning more than three decades. Be­fore as­sum­ing the coun­try’s top ju­di­cial of­fice, he served as a High Court judge, Jus­tice of Ap­peal and lec­tur­er at the Hugh Wood­ing Law School.

Ram­bachan’s pub­lic ser­vice has in­clud­ed stints as for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter, MP for Tabaquite, sen­a­tor, am­bas­sador to Brazil and may­or of Ch­agua­nas. He al­so played a key role in es­tab­lish­ing In­di­an Ar­rival Day as a na­tion­al ob­ser­vance and in de­vel­op­ing a memo­r­i­al in Ce­dros com­mem­o­rat­ing the ar­rival of In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers.

De­stra: Hard work pays off

Among the oth­er awardees was so­ca star De­stra Gar­cia, who re­ceived the Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women (Gold).

Gar­cia de­scribed the recog­ni­tion as some­thing she nev­er imag­ined while grow­ing up in Laven­tille.

Now ap­proach­ing 27 years in the mu­sic in­dus­try, she said the award left her feel­ing hum­bled, grate­ful and, per­haps most im­por­tant­ly, “seen.”

“I came from hum­ble be­gin­nings. I’m from Laven­tille, proud­ly so,” Gar­cia said.

“Af­ter all these years of putting in the work, go­ing in­to 27 years in the in­dus­try, every­body al­ways talks about what you don’t have. To­day, I feel seen.”

She said while she had watched the Na­tion­al Awards cer­e­mo­ny over the years, she nev­er ex­pect­ed her pas­sion for mu­sic and so­ca would earn her na­tion­al recog­ni­tion.

“Hard work pays off,” she added.

Gar­cia al­so en­cour­aged young women to strive be­yond her ac­com­plish­ments.

“We want the next gen­er­a­tion to be bet­ter than the one be­fore,” she said.

Asked for her mes­sage to young women and girls, Gar­cia replied: “You are all beau­ti­ful, and you are enough. Great things hap­pen when you be­lieve in your­self.”

Vet­er­an pho­to­jour­nal­ist An­drea De Sil­va, for­mer chief pho­tog­ra­ph­er at the Trinidad Guardian and Reuters’ of­fi­cial pho­tog­ra­ph­er in T&T, was al­so ho­n­oured, re­ceiv­ing the Cha­co­nia Medal (Sil­ver).

De Sil­va said the recog­ni­tion came as a com­plete sur­prise af­ter a ca­reer spent doc­u­ment­ing the coun­try’s peo­ple, events and his­to­ry through her lens.

“I am ho­n­oured, I feel hum­bled and I am very grate­ful,” she said.

“This is my love. My work means every­thing to me. I nev­er ex­pect­ed this. This is a re­al sur­prise.”

She re­flect­ed on a ca­reer that ex­posed her to peo­ple from all walks of life and al­lowed her to cov­er a wide range of as­sign­ments across the coun­try.

The evening was made even more mem­o­rable be­cause her daugh­ter per­formed at the event.

Of­fer­ing ad­vice to as­pir­ing pho­to­jour­nal­ists and me­dia pro­fes­sion­als, De Sil­va urged them to pri­ori­tise ex­cel­lence and hu­mil­i­ty.

“Let your work and your stan­dard of work be big­ger than some of the egos,” she said. “Hu­mil­i­ty is very im­por­tant in this job. Don’t get over your­self. Let your work speak for it­self. Do the work, and the work will speak for you.”

OR­DER OF THE RE­PUB­LIC OF T&T

(Award­ed for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to T&T)

Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh

Sen­a­tor Wade Mark

Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan

CHA­CO­NIA MEDAL

(Award­ed for long and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice in pro­mot­ing na­tion­al wel­fare or strength­en­ing com­mu­ni­ty spir­it)

GOLD

Dr Paul Elias Alexan­der

Joseph Toney

Kesh­mani Dhani­ram-Go­sine

Maukesh Bas­deo

Jus­tice Al­lan Men­donça (re­tired)

Ha­ji Churchill Azad Akaloo (posthu­mous)

SIL­VER

Omatie Ly­der

Ria Taitt

An­drea De Sil­va

Jai Paras­ram

HUM­MING­BIRD MEDAL

(Award­ed for loy­al and de­vot­ed ser­vice ben­e­fi­cial to T&T in any field of hu­man en­deav­our or for gal­lantry or oth­er hu­mane ac­tion)

GOLD

Sham­sudeen Ayube (Hunters’ Search and Res­cue)

Val­lence Ramb­harat (Hunters’ Search and Res­cue)

Ganesh Ut­sav Foun­da­tion

Chin­maya Mis­sion

Rakesh Yankar­ran

Shamshad Ali

Sadhrud­din ‘Sadro’ Mo­hammed (posthu­mous)

Emamool ‘Mamoo’ Deen (posthu­mous)

Syl­bert Rob­ley

Win­ston Mans­ingh

SIL­VER

Rawle Raphael

BRONZE

Ju­nior Bis­nath

Fy­zo­ol Awardy

Bish­op Mar­jorie An­der­son

PUB­LIC SER­VICE MEDAL OF MER­IT

(Award­ed for out­stand­ing and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice in the Pub­lic Ser­vices, the De­fence and Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices or ser­vice with Statu­to­ry Bod­ies)

GOLD

Ian Mac­in­tyre, SC

Ray­mond Su­ru­jbal­ly

Mas­ter Ralph Doyle

Leonard Brad­shaw

T&T Cadet Force

MEDAL FOR THE DE­VEL­OP­MENT OF WOMEN

(Award­ed for out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of women’s rights and is­sues)

GOLD

Deb­o­rah Moore-Mig­gins

Rudrawa­tee Nan Go­sine-Ram­goolam

De­stra Gar­cia