SISVG appoints new executive

Miriam Roache is the president of Soroptimist International St Vincent and the Grenadines (SISVG) for 2015-2016.

Roache has been a Soroptimist for the past four years and brings with her a wealth of experience from her successful career as teacher, Gender Affairs coordinator, acting director of Social Development and senior assistant secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.{{more}}

“I commence my presidency confident that we have the necessary human resource and we also have a great tool in our Development Plan to act as a road map to guide us through our activities. I ask that together we work for a successful year with all our minds and interests aligned and operating on the same plane,” president Roache said.

According to a release from SISVG, Roache has worked throughout her life to improve the lives of women and girls. Her most recent work is as the current vice-president of the Committee of Experts on Violence against Women (CEVI) of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) to assess the compliance of OAS states on implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, known as the Convention of Belém do Pará. This convention was adopted in 1994 and defines violence against women, establishes that women have the right to live a life free of violence and that violence against women constitutes a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The newly appointed executive is as follows: patron – Lady Antrobus, president – Miriam Roach, president elect & PRO – Shannon Durrant-Samuel, vice-president – Angella Taylor, secretary – Keisha Fraser, treasurer – Euna Thompson, Program Action officer – Ikamola Laborde, Membership officer – Nelcia Primus, Development officer – René Baptiste, immediate past president – Nicola Williams and committee members – Christine DaSilva, Zeitha Hadaway and Norma Knights.

The club’s running projects are: a maintained room at the homeless Shelter in Kingstown; Glebe Hill Pre-school in Barrouallie for toddlers whose parents cannot afford their early childhood education; the Helping Hands Centre for children with disabilities and a Comfort Station in the heart of Kingstown at Heritage Square to fill a much needed service. Additionally, SISVG hosts annual fund-raisers, such as its well-known “Cocktails & Carols” at the end of each year and its summer youth workshop, which is geared to empower young girls during the summer vacation. Most recently (2014-2015) the group has adopted two families whose households are headed by a woman and who were victims of the 2013 December flood. The club’s objective is to continue assisting these women to regain their place in society.