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Tobago CivilNET – Timeline of Activities for the Benefit of Society: 2020 – 2023

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The Tobago CivilNET ha accomplished much in its short history, with limited resources. Here is a summary of the timeline of its activities from 2020 to 2023 and beyond.

Tobago CivilNET
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  1. General Election 2020
  2. THA Elections 2021 (Parts 1 and 2)
  3. Tobago’s Autonomy Drive 2021
  4. Education Revolution Committee – 2022
  5. Citizens’ Annual Poll on the Performance Review of THA – 2021 +
  6. Tony Paul Lecture on Energy – 2023
  7. Wholistic Health Awareness Tobago Committee – 2023 +
  8. The Towards Autonomy Survey – 2021 +

  • General Election 2020

    From August 2, 2020 up to and including August 4, 2020 Tobago CivilNET produced and promoted a series of Virtual Townhall forums dubbed ‘Conversations with the Candidates’, staging a total of 6 candidates vying for the positions of MP for Tobago East and Tobago West over the 3-day period. Hosted by Julien Skeete and Latoyaa Roberts-Thomas, and broadcasted from the Tobago Channel 5 studio. Political Parties represented along with their respective candidates were PDP (Tashia Burris), PNM (Shamfa Cudjoe, Ayanna Webster-Roy), OTV (Juliana Henry-King), the 2 Independent Candidates were (Ricardo Phillip and Nickocy Phillips). Amidst the COVID-19 restrictions, viewers were enabled to call into the studio with their questions and comments, or enter them on Zoom Live to Facebook. These streams were viewed by over 24,000 persons. An assessment of this was published online, and in the Newsday Newspaper.

  • THA Elections 2021 (Parts 1 and 2)

    Beginning December 2020, Tobago CivilNET produced and promoted 15 online panel discussions and townhall forums empaneling Civil Society members (non-candidates) and its signature inter-political party candidates. Each forum was appropriately themed to appeal to a broad spectrum of Civil Society, 2 distinctive forums promoted by Tobago CivilNET during the THA 2021 election seasons are ‘Tobago Women Talk Politics’, featuring an all-women cast of panelists and moderator, ‘Too Young to Vote – Not Too Young to Think’, this featured a cast of 4 primary school students and moderated by a youth. 

    Both THA 2021 election seasons included a televised conversation with those candidates vying to be Chief Secretary, should the opportunity present itself, these were dubbed “Conversations with The Leaders’ and ‘Chat with The Chief’ respectively, they were both moderated by Martin George, and broadcasted from the Tobago Channel 5 studio.

    CivilNET also administered a public survey “THA Election 2021: What Do The People Want” to gauge how the political party leaders in Tobago should deal with the election impasse. This collected 828 responses that were analysed and published.

  • Tobago’s Autonomy Drive 2021

    In between THA 2021 1&2, beginning in April 2021 to July 2021, Tobago CivilNET actively assisted in Tobago’s drive towards its autonomy by organizing Zoom Townhall Forums, where the views of Tobagonianfaes in attendance were aired, sifted, and prepared into a response document then presented to the JSC.

  • Education Revolution Committee – 2022

    CivilNET launched its Education Revolution Committee in 2022, this is in line with its vision to raise the awareness of Tobago Civil Society in all areas of people activity. See Newspaper article. This committee, composed of members of CivilNET and non-members defined a terms of reference for its members and documented its main goals as

    To improve the performance of students at primary and secondary levels

    The committee also laid out several supporting goals, and has accomplished the following to date:

    • Launched it Community Engagement Programme – in the Bon Accord/Canaan Community, themed ‘Not too late to educate’. Several trade schools and institutions such as MIC, THTI, YTEPP, The Division of Education, UTT, and TITL participated, presenting options for bettering oneself through education.

    • Built Relationships with:
      • National PTA (Tobago Branch)
      • Regional PTA (100+ parents)
      • Tobago Information Technology Limited (TITL)

    • Visited Schools to Engage Parents on Ways to Improve their Children’ education:
      • L’Anse Fourmi Methodist Primary school
      • Parlatuvier AC Primary School
      • Pembroke Anglican Primary School
      • Bishops High School
      • Castara Government Primary School
      • Hope AC Primary School (80+ parents)
      • Moriah Government

    • Facilitated the Canadian College Student Fair and information sharing conducted by Seneca College (Led to promise by the High Commissioner of Canada to expand their EduCanada programme to Tobago). Activities:
      • Fair at the Scarborough Library Auditorium in October 2022 (50 attendees). Public was invited to:
        • Meet the university Representatives
        • Explore prospective college programs
        • Access valuable information on scholarships and other related opportunities such as academic advice and career guidance
      • 2 Zoom talks with Bishops High School (hundreds of students)
      • Visit to Speyside High School (hundreds of students)
      • Visit to Signal Hill Secondary School (hundreds of students)

    • Tobago CivilNET Teach a Child to Read Programme
      • Launched the remedial reading programme for 15 students in collaboration with some retired teachers.
      • Villages represented:
        • L’Anse Fourmi
        • Parlatuvier
        • Castara

    • Facilitated the Sargassum Biodigester Programme
      • Partnered with MIC, RWL, THTI, and Rum and Sargassum (Barbados) to facilitate the importation, installation and management of two biodigesters that can generate cooking and transport gas from agricultural and other waste and sargassum. This will be used to stimulate Tobago-approaches to problems like sargassum.

    • Online Education Forum – Child Welfare League of TT (Moriah Division). CivilNET provided and hosted the online platform to accomplish the following:
      • Identify, discuss and build consensus around the many issues that frustrate attainment of an acceptable level of education, as well as functional survival skills in the region.
      • Agree on relevant and achievable collective community action on the way forward

  • Citizens’ Annual Poll on the Performance Review of THA – 2021 +

    CivilNET in conjunction with the Tobago Council of Elders, promoted the first poll on the performance of the THA. The vision is for this to be done annually. The objective being to empower civil society to actively participate in its own governance outside of the voting seasons. This was published in the newspapers.

  • Tony Paul Lecture on Energy – 2023

    Entitled ‘Maximizing Benefit from Oil and Gas – Benefits for Tobago’, in March 2023 CivilNET in conjunction with the Tobago Council of Elders, organized, produced and promoted this public discussion at the Scarborough Library Auditorium. This renowned and internationally recognized energy expert sought to accomplish the following:

    • Provide factual information to help Tobago to engage the energy sector in a more meaningful way, understanding what benefits that are available and using our voices to encourage decision makers to act more in our interests. 

    • Present a framework for maximising the benefits to citizens and businesses from the energy industry, with examples that can contribute to our sustainable economic development. Use this framework to illustrate how T&T approached it in the past, how we have done and how we can do better to maximise future benefits.

    • Highlight the role of Civil Society in ensuring this is achieved.

  • Wholistic Health Awareness Tobago Committee – 2023 +

    In keeping with its vision to raise the awareness of civil society in all areas of people activity within Tobago, CivilNET launched its Wholistic Health Awareness Series in March 2023. At this launch we featured Dr Matt O’Neil Myrie, Dr Kadishah Wiltshire, and Public Health professional Ricardo Bobb. Together, they accomplished the following goals;

    • Broadly explored the inter-connection between Body, Mind, and Spirit.
    • Promoted the responsibility we each have for our own well-being

    The Wholistic Health Awareness Series unfolded with 5 subsequent episodes of season 1 which began in March 2023 and concluded in July 2023. Topics of discussions and the featured subject matter experts are as follows:

    • A Wholistic View of Chronic Diseases – Ricardo Bobb
    • A Wholistic View of Gut Health – Melissa Agbeko-Walker
    • A Wholistic Approach to Sexual Well-being – Onika Henry – Sexologist
    • Healing Conversations for National Stress and Trauma – Billie Sterling-Lewis – Counselling Psychologist
    • A Wholistic View of Proper Nutrition for Children – Dr Darlene Harris – Paediatrician

  • The Towards Autonomy Survey – 2021 +

    As of September 1, 2023, as a precedent to launching educational discussion forums aimed at refocusing Tobagonians attention on its autonomy drive, CivilNET produced and promoted the ‘Towards Autonomy Survey’ which is open for participation of all Tobagonians from September 1, 2023 to October 7, 2023. Our objective being to gauge the level of awareness so that the appropriate educational forums can be designed to engage and raise the level of Tobago’s awareness and interest in its autonomy.

    Key objectives of the survey towards the issue of our autonomy:

    • Gauge Attitudes and Perceptions
    • Foster Awareness
    • Promote Shared Understanding
    • Encourage Consensus

In addition to these key accomplishments, CivilNET routinely responds to the media’s invitation to share our views on key developments within Tobago, and our nation.