Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As he pre­pared to re­ceive the Medal of Mer­it Gold for Pub­lic Ser­vice on Re­pub­lic Day, Dr Allen Sam­my urged the na­tion’s youth to per­se­vere with pa­tience, re­mind­ing them that true trans­for­ma­tion takes time and the coun­try’s fu­ture rests in their vi­sion.

The na­tion­al award recog­nised more than four decades of lead­er­ship in hous­ing, com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, lo­cal gov­ern­ment, sport, and cul­ture.

Dr Sam­my, who de­scribed him­self as hum­bled by the ho­n­our, said the award was un­ex­pect­ed. “I feel hum­bled. And ho­n­oured, of course. But hum­ble is the best word in these cir­cum­stances.”

Re­flect­ing on some of his con­tri­bu­tions, Dr Sam­my said he served as Man­ag­er of the Caribbean Net­work for In­te­grat­ed Rur­al De­vel­op­ment, co­or­di­nat­ed con­fer­ences on land and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment, and con­tributed to glob­al dis­cus­sions on food se­cu­ri­ty, squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, and cli­mate re­silience.

In 2001, he head­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s del­e­ga­tion to a UN ses­sion in Nairo­bi re­view­ing the Habi­tat Agen­da.

“I feel proud of those achieve­ments be­cause most of that work was vol­un­tary,” he said. “It has tak­en up thou­sands of hours of my life, but it was al­ways about help­ing oth­ers.”

Dr Sam­my said he placed young peo­ple at the cen­tre of his ini­tia­tives through­out his ca­reer.

“In Pe­nal/Debe, I in­tro­duced an an­nu­al awards pro­gramme to cel­e­brate stu­dents’ achieve­ments in aca­d­e­mics, sports, and cul­ture. Every sin­gle year, ex­cept dur­ing COVID, we ho­n­oured our young peo­ple. We al­so recog­nised the con­tri­bu­tions of old­er cit­i­zens. It lift­ed the pro­file of the com­mu­ni­ty.”

He said scout­ing was an­oth­er life­long pas­sion. A Queen’s Scout at 16, he lat­er be­came Chair­man of the Na­pari­ma and South­west Dis­trict Scout Coun­cil, men­tor­ing gen­er­a­tions of youth through dis­ci­pline and ser­vice.

Dr Sam­my said he al­so left a mark on crick­et, serv­ing as Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board of Con­trol, Chair­man of the West In­dies Crick­et Coach­ing Com­mit­tee, and lat­er as Di­rec­tor of the West In­dies Crick­et Board. His lead­er­ship in crick­et de­vel­op­ment spanned more than three decades.

De­spite his many roles, Dr Sam­my said his great­est ac­com­plish­ments are per­son­al. “I have the two most beau­ti­ful chil­dren in the world. I’ve been mar­ried for 40 years, hap­pi­ly, to the same la­dy, my wife Sher­ra­lyn, and we have my son Javed and daugh­ter Na­dine. Fam­i­ly has been the foun­da­tion for every­thing else.”

Say­ing his award was a jour­ney of pa­tience, ser­vice, and hope, Dr Sam­my added: “This ho­n­our is not just for me. It is for all who gave of their time and ef­fort to build this coun­try. And to our youth—I be­lieve in you. Stay com­mit­ted, be­cause change is a long jour­ney, but one worth mak­ing.”

Born in South Trinidad, Dr Sam­my ded­i­cat­ed much of his ca­reer to im­prov­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for low-in­come fam­i­lies. Through his lead­er­ship of Sou-Sou Land Co­op­er­a­tive So­ci­ety Ltd, he helped pi­o­neer in­no­v­a­tive ap­proach­es to squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion and low-cost hous­ing. Be­tween 1985 and 1994, he man­aged 11 ma­jor com­mu­ni­ty projects that com­bined agri­cul­ture, hous­ing, and co­op­er­a­tive fi­nanc­ing.

His ex­per­tise car­ried him to the na­tion­al lev­el. As Chair­man and CEO of the Land Set­tle­ment Agency (1999–2002, 2010–2012), he over­saw poli­cies for hun­dreds of squat­ter sites across the coun­try. He al­so served as Ad­vi­sor to the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing (2013–2015).

In lo­cal gov­ern­ment, he served as Deputy May­or of San Fer­nan­do, and lat­er as Chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for over 14 years across two terms. Un­der his lead­er­ship, Pe­nal/Debe in­tro­duced Her­itage Fes­ti­val Week, a cel­e­bra­tion of cul­ture, food, mu­sic, and his­to­ry that helped trans­form the re­gion’s im­age. “There was a time when peo­ple felt ashamed to say they came from Pe­nal or Debe. We gave them space to show­case their tal­ent, and it built a sense of pride,” he re­called.

How­ev­er, Dr Sam­my’s work reached far be­yond Trinidad and To­ba­go. He rep­re­sent­ed the coun­try at Unit­ed Na­tions and in­ter­na­tion­al fo­rums in Kenya, In­dia, Mal­ta, Den­mark, and Bel­gium, pre­sent­ing pa­pers on hous­ing, pover­ty al­le­vi­a­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven de­vel­op­ment.