Educator, former politician, now capacity building and community engagement consultant Patricia Fredericks, 71, leaves indelible impressions wherever she goes. Though she is originally from the small predominantly Carib village of Kwebanna on the Waini River in Region One, she says, “When people ask me where I’m from, I usually tell them I’m from Regions One, Four and Nine.”
Born in the Moruca sub-region, Fredericks attended the primary schools at Kwebanna and Santa Cruz but completed her primary education at Santa Rosa. She recalled that her parents had moved to Santa Cruz, Barama Mouth to work on a sawmill, taking their children with them.
The headmistress of the school, Carlotta Persaud, Fredericks said, “saw some potential in me and advised my parents to enrol me at Santa Rosa, a higher level school. They agreed. The first place I stayed was at ‘Gramma Natty’ at Cabucalli Landing. The place became crowded and ‘Auntie Shan’ (Shandrina De Souza) took me in. I wrote the Preliminary Examinations and College of Preceptors while I was at Auntie Shan.