I care deeply about the women in my life; my sister, my mother, my nani, aunties, and many others. When I was young, we dealt with a lot of hardships. We experienced poverty, violence, addiction, and death. There are no silver linings to these experiences, only the silver linings we choose to create from them. I think these experiences, as well as the people they were connected to, really inspired me to make women’s empowerment my life’s purpose. My Nani was sent from her home in Trinidad to study nursing in England when she was young. The idea was that her family would invest in her and that she would support her family when she was working as a nurse. I think that story really informed how I look at the world. I think when we are given privileges, we have a responsibility to invest back in the communities we love. It’s more than giving back; it’s reciprocity.

As a little girl, my Nanni (grandmother) would tell me stories about growing up in Trinidad. It was not until I was older that I learned about the historical human and ecological exploitation of the Caribbean sugar industry. I cannot speak to the experience of other communities, but to me, it feels like the trauma from indentureship lives on through the violence perpetrated towards Indo-Caribbean women and girls in our communities. Over the years, I have learned that many communities, not just my own, are impacted by violence towards women. Transcending borders and demographics, the World Health Organization estimates domestic violence affects one in three women worldwide. Coming together around the kettle with other women became a site of creativity, transformation, and radical reclamation. It instilled in me the wish to end domestic violence and root out the systemic inequities that allow violence towards women to thrive.

I think that if partnership and collaboration are to be done in an appropriate way, they need to be grounded in reciprocity. There has to be a shared understanding of needs and a commitment to work together to ensure all stakeholders (including the planet) are supported.