Founder of Women on the Move, Judy Gravesande-Noel, has expressed gratitude to the Region Ten Democratic Council (RDC) for what she described as the continued support and assistance to her organisation. Gravesande-Noel disclosed that her NGO has been working to increase awareness of cancer in Region Ten.
She said that while the group does a lot of work in Linden and more so, Region Ten, the work is not confined to this area. The group continues to do a lot of work within the diaspora.
She disclosed that the group has been in existence for the past 19 years, and has done tremendous work in enhancing the awareness of cancer as they seek to further empower persons.
“We have been in existence for some 19 years doing this yeoman service. We more or less target or get the attention of people in Linden like the Regional Chairman who has been, over the years, supporting us through the donation of trophies,” she said.
She added, “I must say that it’s not as though we are awarding these persons with trophies for participating. While it may be that when we come to them on a one-on-one, we are bringing the awareness to them.”
Gravesande-Noel noted that remaining in touch with the smaller companies and individuals who have supported the organisation from the inception is critically important.
“Instead of going to a mega-company like ExxonMobil, we think that if we go to those people, we are actually forgetting the small companies and individuals who were there with us from the start.
“It is important to note that we started very small thus we ask the individual companies to give us trophies so that we can award persons. We have moved from giving individuals trophies to now giving them to groups just basically for their participation as it seeks to motivate them in a way that others can emulate,” she said.
Speaking about the level of awareness now in the community, she disclosed that the number of awardees is increasing, thus resulting in more persons getting involved.
She said that it is evident as persons are reaching out to contact the group to get involved rather than seeking to get persons involved.
She said that for this year, GTT donated some jerseys and the group was very thankful and grateful, adding it was the first time that they secured jerseys from the telephone company.
“We were able to present to our stakeholders within the community like RC, managers of various entities [they] also sold some to cover some overhead costs that they had.
“We had some overhead costs as an organisation. We do have overhead costs and that is how we were able to cover some of the costs,” she said.
Gravesande-Noel disclosed that the event is continuing to grow. She said that the organisation started out in front of Jacks then it grew. It then moved to the Linden-Georgetown minibus park. “We are now based at MSC ground. We want to thank the public; we want to thank God first and everybody who came on board because with this Regional Chairman’s pledge to us despite the event being completed, he has remained committed to delivering,” she stressed.
She said that while the event is finished, the Regional Chairman pledged some trophies to them so that they could award some schools and today he is delivering on that pledge.
The NGO Founder said that while the group only has seven members, there are numerous volunteers.
Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, in congratulating the Women on the Move founder, said that he and his RDC are once again very pleased to be associated with them.
He said that over the years, the council has maintained supporting the organisation because of its very impressive work within the community. He noted that he intends to increase the support and assistance to the organisation in a greater way for 2020.
More Stories
Message from the Minister of Health Honourable Dr Frank Anthony – World Diabetes Day 2024
President Ali leads rebuilding efforts for Karasabai homes
GS Jagdeo slams opposition’s elections delay tactics