Deborah De Rosia:

Service and giving have always been a pivotal part of Deborah de Rosia’s life. Being honoured with the Inspirational Champion of Women Award by the IWFTT this month of September comes after decades of community service to others, and she is insistent that the award should not be only hers but a tribute to all those who have given their time and talent to the Eternal Light Community.

Born into a family that was dedicated to working with the church, de Rosia remembers a childhood where she and her siblings were always acutely aware of a wider community that they had to look out for.

“We collected clothing, washed clothes for St Vincent de Paul, creamed butter and sugar, and made cakes to sell to collect money for the poor,” she says.

As her family was a single-income household, she remembers her aunt who lived with them helping to supplement the family’s income and constantly being surrounded by examples of selflessness, generosity and care.

After attending secondary school at St Joseph’s Convent, PoS, she went on to John Donaldson Technical Institute, where she did courses in food technology. Considering herself a “lifelong learner,” she then went to the Catholic Teachers College and began teaching at her alma mater, St Joseph’s Convent.

After some years of teaching, she approached the Ministry of Education to apply for a scholarship to study dietetics in England. One day, while she was preparing to leave the teaching service to go to the UK, she heard God saying, “‘Have you asked me?’” Walking back to the school with that in mind, she wondered, “Do I have to ask You if I want to go to study?”

But it was that call that remained on her mind. Not long after, while lying in her bed at home, she heard God saying, “‘Deb, a day will come when the Government won’t be able to pay you. I am your source.’”

Shortly after, she was invited on a missionary trip to Ghana, which changed her original course from studying in the UK, and this eventually led her to various African countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.

“God’s intention for me was different,” she says, and she began a devoted service to evangelisation, spreading the word of God worldwide. One day, when de Rosia returned to T&T, she encountered a crying baby in her mother’s front gallery. After waiting to see if someone would return for the baby, she eventually took the child to the police station. The police indicated that de Rosia should take care of the child, and as she says, “the rest was history.”

The next years of her life were spent building the Eternal Light Community to serve dispossessed women, children and men. De Rosia became devoted to the service of others and founded and directed four non-profits that create opportunities for women, men, and other young adults, through education and vocational training.

The GOSHEN Home and Halfway House was established in September 1987 and catered for pregnant teenagers and battered women whose lives were endangered by their spouses. The Amica House is a children’s home that was formed after de Rosia encountered an abandoned newborn baby on their doorstep who was wrapped in a bloody towel. Amica House consists of nine charitable houses that care for the elderly, the infirm, and boys and girls in various parts of the country.

The organisation has since helped and nurtured more than 60 girls to grow to adulthood. As a former educator, de Rosia also saw the need to offer education to underprivileged young people and founded the Eternal Light Community Vocational School.

The school began humbly with classes at her mother’s house, including secretarial classes, cake-icing courses, and GCSE subjects. Now, as a result of generous donations, the school has newly opened in Sea Lots, for the benefit of the community there.

The school will house a nursery and teach ten disciplines—all chosen beforehand during discussion with the residents of the community. It will also have a nursery for the girls who already have babies and think they cannot go back to school. The collection of these NGOs has been aptly named the Eternal Light Community, as according to de Rosia, “light pushes back darkness.”

Her hope is to teach the word of God, encourage good decision-making, empower men and women, and create a deeply rooted culture of service in T&T. Encouraging young women to find positive role models, confidants, and leaders, she advises that sharing sisterhood is essential in this life.

“In every human being, there is a gem; sometimes you need someone to draw it out and polish it to become the woman God wants you to be.”

Remembering God’s call many years ago, which said that the Government would one day no longer be able to pay her, de Rosia is filled with gratitude for God making it all possible and the generous contributions of the corporate community in T&T, “allowing us to care for others spiritually, materially and psychologically.”

She does not accept self-serving platitudes, however, and says that “this honourable award from the IWFTT is bestowed upon all those who have journeyed with me over the past 52 years. This award is for the Eternal Light Community.”

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