Michelle Loubon

Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards, wife of Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, paid trib­ute to Pro­fes­sor Zu­lai­ka Ali for her com­mit­ment to the de­vel­op­ment of child health care in T&T.

Ali was the re­cip­i­ent of the Cha­co­nia Medal, Sil­ver, for med­i­cine. Ramjohn-Richards said: "She has done so much for child health care. She is al­ways trav­el­ling and work­ing. She is al­ways in­ter­est­ed in child health care and its ad­vance­ment. She is a hard work­er." Zu­lai­ka's sis­ter, Za­hei­da added: "I am very proud of her. She is ex­tra­or­di­nary." Be­fore the func­tion, Ali ar­rived in the com­pa­ny of her hus­band Dr David Pi­cou, re­cip­i­ent of the 2006 Cha­co­nia Medal, Gold, for med­i­cine. Draped across her shoul­ders, was a pink shawl and a red rose stuck on her out­fit. She said: "I am ex­cit­ed." Af­ter the for­mal­i­ties, Pi­cou added: "I am very proud of her. I don't know where she is right now. I guess she must be ac­cept­ing con­grat­u­la­tions some­where." Apart from Ali, med­ical doc­tor Dr Nicholas Ben­nie Tia-Ok­wee was award­ed the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it, Gold, for his con­tri­bu­tion to med­i­cine.

Awardees' com­ment

Bri­an Mc Far­lane/Cha­co­nia Medal, Gold/cul­ture

He was ac­com­pa­nied by his broth­er Robert, who de­scribed the medal as "very shiny." Mc Far­lane said: "I feel ex­cit­ed and hum­bled. As a child, I was dyslex­ic. I am proof peo­ple can over­come chal­lenges. Any­body can be some­body. It is nice to know the arts is be­ing recog­nised." Sport­ing a pair of red shoes, Cul­ture Min­is­ter Win­ston Pe­ters and vet­er­an mas­man Pe­ter Min­shall were al­so present. Don An­tho­ny Ja­cob/Hum­ming Bird Medal, Gold/for sport

Ja­cob, a mar­tial arts in­struc­tor, said: "I am ded­i­cat­ing this medal to the mem­o­ry of my son An­to­nio. It is a spe­cial day for Pur­ple Drag­on. His mat­ter is com­ing up on the 17th." An­to­nio was mur­dered in 2002.

Sheila Sawh/Gowkaran/Hum­ming Bird Medal, Sil­ver/com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice

El­e­gant­ly at­tired in a red/black sari, Gowkaran said: "It is a great ho­n­our. My hus­band and I worked hard and it has paid off. We do­nate wheel­chairs, worked with the Ro­tary Clubs and gave land to a blind cou­ple. We as­sist the hand­i­capped."

Joe Sir­ju/Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it. Gold, for ed­u­ca­tion

He said: "I am very proud and hap­py." He felt the so­cio-eco­nom­ic prob­lems in the school had to be ad­dressed to pro­duce qual­i­ty stu­dents and cit­i­zens. He sound­ed op­ti­mistic. "It can be done," he said.

Lennox Austin McK­ay/Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it, Sil­ver

He said: "I re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­ate it. I sart­ed the Scout Move­ment." Dur­ing the war, he re­mem­bered dis­trib­ut­ing sand­bags to peo­ple in Port-of-Spain. "The sand­bags were pro­tec­tion against the bombs. The in­cen­di­ary bombs burned the gal­vanise. We were prepar­ing for at­tacks. "

Prof Ju­lian Ken­ny/Cha­co­nia Medal, Gold/con­ser­va­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment

Re­splen­dent in a red and black dress, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar popped by to ex­tend con­grat­u­la­tions. He said: "I no­ticed the PM paid at­ten­tion to the en­vi­ron­ment in her In­de­pen­dence Day ad­dress. I think the en­vi­ron­ment is in an aw­ful mess. "I com­pli­ment the Guardian for its high­light­ing the plight of fish­er­men in the North Coast."