标签： Dominica

ROSEAU, Dominica – In a landmark gathering for youth empowerment in the Caribbean nation, the Girl Guides Association of Dominica (GGAD) has confirmed a refreshed executive leadership lineup following its 2026 Annual General Meeting and Business Session, held June 19. The newly elected board members will serve three-year terms, joining existing sitting officers to advance the organization’s decades-long mission of building confidence, leadership skills, and community engagement among girls and young women across the country.

At the top of the new leadership slate is Abigail Christmas, who will step into the role of Chief Commissioner – marking a historic milestone for GGAD, as Christmas becomes the youngest person to hold the position in the association’s history. The full roster of newly elected leaders also includes Valencia Webb, who takes on dual roles as Deputy Chief Commissioner and Treasurer; Cecilia Christmas as International Commissioner; and Keziah Darwton as Assistant Secretary/Treasurer.

Webb, who served 10 years in the top post of Chief Commissioner before this leadership transition, will bring her decades of institutional knowledge and experience to the new deputy role, and has publicly expressed full confidence in Christmas and the broader incoming team. The mixed lineup of returning and new officials is framed by GGAD leadership as a deliberate balance of organizational continuity and fresh perspective, designed to steady the movement while opening space for new ideas.

In her first public address after the election result was confirmed, Christmas spoke to her long-rooted connection to the Guiding movement, which has spanned local, regional, and international levels of the organization. “Girl Guiding teaches that no dream is too big or too far away,” she said. “I am honored to serve in this capacity and to continue building opportunities for girls and young women in Dominica… The Guiding movement has shaped my leadership journey, and I remain committed to ensuring that every girl sees herself as capable, powerful, and prepared to lead.”

Christmas added that her cross-scale experience within the movement has deepened her personal commitment to expanding youth empowerment and advancing gender equity across Dominica. The other newly elected officials also echoed this commitment: Cecilia Christmas and Keziah Darwton both shared public remarks thanking GGAD members for the trust placed in them, and pledged to uphold the core mission and values of the Guiding movement in their new roles.

Existing executive members who will continue their tenure through the next term include President Josette Seraphine-Hedrington, Vice President Marcia Dublin, Secretary Nailah Hurtault, Public Relations Officer Merkwan Pacquette, Training Commissioner AnnMarie Graneau, Brownie Commissioner Alicia Griffith, Deputy Brownie Commissioner Rose Caprice, Roseau District Commissioner (Cecilia Christmas, who also retains this post alongside her new international role), Rainbow Leader Agnes Laguerre, and Youth Representative Keziah Darwton, who also holds her new assistant secretary/treasurer position.

GGAD remains fully aligned with the guiding principles of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and the organization reaffirmed its core commitment to nurturing growth among young women through hands-on leadership opportunities, community service projects, advocacy for equity, and targeted personal development programming. In a formal press release announcing the election results, the association extended official congratulations to all newly elected leaders, noting it anticipates a productive, transformative three-year term that will expand reach and impact for girls across the island.

The release closed with gratitude to local media for their ongoing coverage and support of the movement, as well as recognition for the hundreds of members, unit captains, volunteers, and community supporters whose consistent work continues to strengthen the Guiding movement across every district of Dominica.

Each Father’s Day, global conversations turn to the irreplaceable role fathers play in nurturing the next generation, but for Black communities across the Americas, one critical conversation remains long overdue: unpacking how centuries of systemic anti-Black oppression distorted the global perception of Black fatherhood, and how we can begin to rewrite that harmful story. As former U.S. President Barack Obama once noted, biological parenthood does not make a man a father—courage, commitment, and consistent care do. This truth carries extra weight when discussing Black fatherhood, a role that has been systematically maligned and undercelebrated for generations.

One of the most pervasive and harmful myths shaping modern discourse is the false, racism-rooted claim that Black masculinity is inherently toxic, dangerous, and detached from family life. This harmful stereotype has not only skewed public perception—it has had deadly consequences, justifying excessive police violence and the extrajudicial killings of countless Black men at the hands of law enforcement. Too often, public discourse points to high rates of father absence in Black communities as evidence of this supposed failure, ignoring the centuries of systemic trauma that created this reality in the first place.

To understand the roots of the modern narrative around Black fatherhood, we must trace it back to the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. As historian Libra Hilde, associate professor of History, documents in her groundbreaking work *Slavery, Fatherhood, and Paternal Duty in African American Communities over the Long Nineteenth Century*, even under the brutal constraints of slavery, enslaved Black men were loving, invested fathers who fought tirelessly for their children. Despite systemic barriers that stripped them of legal rights to their families, enslaved Black men provided food and clothing, risked their freedom to purchase family members from enslavers, planned escapes to reunite broken families, and cultivated shared identity for their children in a system designed to erase it. Hilde frames this quiet, consistent care as an act of resistance: by claiming their paternal roles, enslaved men reclaimed power that white enslavers tried to steal.

That said, the trauma of slavery cannot be understated. Slavery was designed to dehumanize Black people, and a core part of that project was the deliberate emasculation of Black men and the destruction of the Black family unit. Upon arrival in the Americas, enslaved people were routinely separated, with spouses and children sold to different plantations to break communal and familial bonds. Black men were reduced to property, valued only for forced reproduction in the practice of slave breeding, where enslavers forced Black men to mate with enslaved women to increase the enslaver’s capital. Sexual abuse of enslaved Black men was widespread, used as a tool to assert dominance and strip Black men of their autonomy, a topic that remains vastly understudied and overlooked in mainstream historical narratives. Even cultural identity was stolen: African names were replaced with the surnames of slave owners, a legacy that many Black descendants carry to this day. The end result of this deliberate destruction was the normalization of matrifocality—family structures headed by single mothers with fathers absent for extended or permanent periods—a structure that outlasted slavery and persists in many Black communities across the Americas today.

The term matrifocality was first coined in 1966 by anthropologist Raymond T. Smith during his study of working-class Black Caribbean families in British Guiana, and its prevalence in modern Black communities is no accident. Research consistently shows that children in two-parent nuclear households have better academic outcomes, lower rates of maladaptive behavior, and reduced exposure to poverty than children growing up in father-absent households. The normalization of matrifocality, rooted in slavery’s deliberate attack on Black fatherhood, created a cycle of disadvantage that continues to impact Black communities generations later.

Today, as we mark Father’s Day, it is past time to reorient this conversation and celebrate the growing number of young Black fathers who are showing up consistently for their children. It is now commonplace to see Black fathers pushing strollers, attending school events, and building deep bonds with their kids—an image that mainstream media has long ignored, but one that deserves far greater celebration. At the same time, we must hold accountable fathers who have stepped back from their commitments, particularly when it comes to meeting child support obligations, and encourage them to prioritize the needs of their children.

Creating lasting change requires intentional investment across multiple sectors of society. The education system, which has long served to reinforce colonial and racist power structures, must be reformed to support healthy Black masculinity and prepare young Black boys for responsible fatherhood. Currently, many Caribbean curricula still retain colonial biases, and popular culture often reinforces harmful norms that celebrate men having multiple partners. There is an urgent need for decolonization of school curricula across the Americas, as well as investment in mentorship programs, parenting clinics, and co-curricular activities that teach young boys what responsible fatherhood looks like. Faith institutions also have a role to play: for centuries, the Bible was misinterpreted and misused to justify the enslavement of Black people, and religious communities must now lead conversations that honor the dignity of Black fatherhood.

Governments across the Americas, particularly in the Caribbean, have a responsibility to realign policy and education to support Black families and uplift Black fatherhood. On this Father’s Day, we honor all Black fathers who have shown up for their children against all odds, who have broken cycles of intergenerational trauma, and who work every day to leave a better world for the next generation. Your role is irreplaceable, your work matters, and you deserve to be celebrated.

In closing, this piece honors author Wayne Campbell’s own father, Fitzroy, echoing the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who famously spoke of his own father’s courage and integrity: “I have rarely ever met a person more fearless and courageous than my father. The thing that I admire most about my dad is his genuine Christian character. He is a man of real integrity, deeply committed to moral and ethical principles. If I had a problem, I could always call Daddy.”

Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator focused on development policy, culture, and gender issues.

On Friday, Dominica’s Minister of Education Octavia Alfred publicly released the official results of the 2026 Grade Six National Assessment (G6NA), and announced that 124 participating students have been awarded academic scholarships to continue their education.

Following the established award framework used in past assessment cycles, this year’s scholarships are granted to students who scored between 18 and 20 points on the assessment, while students who earned 16 to 17 points qualify for need-based bursaries. Of the 124 scholarship recipients, gender breakdown data shows 67 are girls and 57 are boys. For the 122 students who earned bursaries, 71 are girls and 51 are boys.

Alfred emphasized a major shift in this year’s G6NA design, which moved away from traditional competitive ranking of individual students and schools toward a focus on measuring individual academic growth. As part of this new approach, the education department did not release rankings for top-performing students or schools this cycle. Alfred explained that this shift was intentional, noting that ranking schools creates unfair comparisons because institutions across the island do not operate with equal access to resources and support, meaning they do not start on a level playing field. “This is not a competition, this is about ensuring that Dominican children all reach their full potential,” she said.

Across Dominica’s 57 public and private primary schools, 46 had at least one student who earned either a scholarship or a bursary in this year’s assessment. Every participating student will receive an individualized report sheet detailing their performance, which parents or guardians can collect directly from their child’s enrolled school in the coming days.

One of the most notable outcomes highlighted by Alfred is the closing of the historical performance gap between boys and girls. For years, national education statistics have shown that girls consistently outperformed boys on national primary-level assessments, but 2026 results show boys performed on par with girls this cycle. “We are very glad this year that our boys performed just as well as our girls. I want to say Dominica is coming out of the statistics that showed that girls outperformed boys. Well done, well done. And let us continue to work so that we do not return from whence we came,” Alfred shared, expressing clear satisfaction with this shift in outcomes.