The Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) on Friday officially launched its online Women’s Hall of Fame, which honours twenty-five (25) ‘sheroes.’
The honourees are: Gertie Wood, Jane Phillips-Gay, Janet Jagan, Viola Burnham, Philomena Sahoye-Shury, Sheila Holder, Kowsilla, Eileen Cox, Desiree Bernard, Diane McTurk, Jean La Rose, Desrey Fox, Bernadette Persaud, Joycelynne Loncke, Marjorie Kirkpatrick, Sister Mary Noel Menezes, June Ramsammy, Matilda Saigo, Andaiye, Magda Pollard, Josephine Whitehead, Paulette Allicock, Vilma Da Silva, Claudette Masdammer and Odessa Blair
The women, who all have backgrounds in either politics, rights advocacy, culture and arts, academia and professional/business or community leadership, were referred to as grassroots heroes.
At a simple ceremony to launch the site, which was held on Friday morning at the National Library, Chairperson of the WGEC, Indranie Chandarpal said that there was a delay in the launch, which was initially slated for last month, in time for Independence. Chandarpal noted that it was planned as part of a series of activities organised to recognise women.
In February, 2016, 56 heroines were honoured at the Jubilee exhibition held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal. This, she said, was done after the Commission made a decision that it was necessary for the efforts of women to be recorded.
“It was an attempt to look at the lives of women and recognise their contributions in society…In 2011, it was decided that as a commission, they will be honouring women in the month of March, so we started out by looking at some of our Guyanese women and also some international women, because we cannot escape the fact that there are women all over the world who would have played a very important role in different aspects of development,” Chandarpal explained.
“…Now, since it’s the age of technology, we believe that it is the most “timely” opportunity to have [a] Hall of Fame,” she added.
Tributes were also given to two of the 25 honourees, Andaiye and Pollard, who died recently. The hall of fame can be accessed at https://hall.wgec.gov.gy/ .
