Shermaine Wickham-Howe helping others through Single Mother’s Association

VISHANNA PHAGOO

Not many people are aware of the existence of the Single Mother’s Association of Trinidad and Tobago.

But president, founder and director Shermaine Wickham-Howe said the association has been working tirelessly to ensure that single-parent families receive the best care and opportunities for many years.

Though the association has been low-key, its work has resonated with corporate TT, which Wickham-Howe said has been offering the association's members support such as work training or support for their children, including financial assistance.

The association is based in Kelly Village, Caroni and has been a registered not-for-profit organisation under the Companies Act since 2017. It was recognised by Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity in 2019 as the official representative group for single mothers in TT.

Wickham-Howe told Sunday Newsday she decided to form the association after dealing with her own struggles as a single mother of two.

“From the time of his (second child's) birth, the organisation was formed and it was formed because I had to get up and get for myself. I had a small business in St Helena, Events Memory, a photography service. It was doing well and I offered services to the community that no one else was doing at that time back in 2009. Then my shop was robbed, broken into three different times, I was kidnapped and placed in a vehicle trunk, then they took all my equipment.

"But I didn’t give up, I couldn’t, I had to press on.”

Wickham-Howe now works at the Ministry of Works and Transport but hopes to reopen her photography business soon.

She said around the time of those criminal attacks, she also had to help her mother repair her home by getting assistance from various ministries. After seeing how she was able to navigate through the system, people in the community, mostly single mothers, began approaching her about securing grants and she saw the need to form the association.

She said since it was officially recognised, she has been networking with various companies and NGOs and has been able to help thousands of families, whether single-parent or not.

“We also started the Ruth Empowerment Centre, where we house women for three to six months, and various ministries send people to us from Family Court, Counter Trafficking Unit, Witness and Protection Programmes and Family Services. We house these people for a short period of time to get them out of the emergency state to a more comfortable setting.”

Wickham-Howe said the association has more than 600 members and every day they share what they can do for each other.

“We communicate through our WhatsApp group, where we have about 300-plus members...and the association shares edifying programmes and empowering programmes to our mothers. We also have smaller WhatsApp groups that we pulled from the general group,” which she said caters to various needs or passions members may have, such as a prayer group, unemployment group, exercise group and one for entrepreneurs. Wickham-Howe said the women can choose which groups they want to be a part of and the association would forward all relevant information to the group administrators.

“If you want to exercise, we have the dates and time and an instructor that does the sessions twice a week. If they want to register their businesses in the entrepreneurial group, we do the actual registration and send the application through (the Ministry of) Legal Affairs.”

She said the association was able to help between 15 and 20 women register their businesses and open business accounts.

Aside from these, Wickham-Howe said companies have contacted the association to offer help for these women in their endeavours.

“Sagicor has reached out and they want to offer a three-month training to some of our mothers and give them a grant to start their individual businesses, so we are working with Sagicor on that. Then we have Angostura, which reached out to us, and they offered to support two working single mothers with two children each for the rest of 2023,” paying for lessons, transport and any material for school they may need. Wickham-Howe said these opportunities are first shared with members before they are extended to non-members.

“If somebody who is not a member calls or someone calls on behalf of a non-member and needs help, we help them as well. We help those on the outskirts who reach out on Facebook or (are) recommended by the welfare offices or anyone who contacts us. But we have a membership and we try to work through our membership first – unless it’s an emergency: then we help right away.”

She said every day she gets calls from the public for assistance, as the association is among other NGOs listed at welfare offices for those seeking help and shelter. Wickham-Howe said in TT most of the government-funded shelters are filled, but her association still tries to accommodate those in need at shelters that don't receive government funding.

“We have gotten a one-off grant in the past to do a back-to-school (initiative) and we used if just for that. We wrote to other ministries and sometimes they give, sometimes they don’t, but most of our funding comes from corporate Trinidad and we are thankful for that.”

She said the association has a calibre of women – employed, self-employed, mother-of-one and others – and she knows how to properly distribute what was sent to the association based on the members’ situations.

Wickham-Howe said when the mothers send personal "thank-you" notes to her and directors Glen Bhagwansingh and Jackie Bridges, it touches her heart.

“It makes me feel like they appreciated the help they got, because we’ve had mothers who have gotten help over the years and after the pandemic they just left the group. They’ve moved on and they’re living well, but they didn’t give back to the organisation. For the businesses and companies that support, once they see the evidence of what they gave and saw that it was beneficial, I believe that’s the look they are looking for.”

She said she’s all about transparency, so she always gets permission from donors and  recipients to post photos to the association’s Facebook page. If not, she puts out public "thank-you" posts without using the names or photos of the donors.

The association was part of an anti-crime walk on April 22 with local government councillor of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation Samuel Sankar, and the police Central Division, among others. It also offered a variety of check-ups at a health fair at the Super Sonic Sports Ground, at Kelly Village. She said people can look forward to many more events from the association and its collaborators.

Follow the Single Mother's Association of TT on Facebook.