Ghenere Heerah

Lead Editor-Newsgathering

ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt

Ghenere Heerah’s life comes down to four words: Faith, family, females, and the future.

Her faith has been the centrepiece of her life, with her family being the bedrock. Her very name, Ghenere, means God’s gift. She’s spent the last decade focusing on inspiring women to live their best lives.

Her focus has moved to ensuring the future of our world is given the necessary tools to live and lead. That focus on Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) has led her to New York City, where she is currently overseeing her most recent project supporting the leadership of Morrison Mentors, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) organisation based in Long Island.

She manages “Next Gen” teams that are helping young students transform their lives to meet the demands of the future through technology and innovation.

‘Success looks differently for different people’

Heerah’s work, however, started in her own country–T&T. Ten years ago, she founded her non-profit organisation, Women of Elegance, but not before she diced with a psychology degree.

“My mom used to tell me ‘people who are counsellors and psychologists are listeners; you are a talker,’” Heerah remembered as she laughed.

Having enrolled in psychology, she admitted to not doing well in the course and ultimately dropped out.

As she watched her friends graduate, it hurt, and she was consumed with the feelings that come with disappointment and failure. While Heerah might have struggled with her psychology degree, mentally she was tough.

It was out of that struggle to find herself that she would launch Women of Elegance. At 21, she held the first edition of the event at the then Jaffa at the Oval restaurant. Former CNC3 news anchor Golda Lee Bruce delivered the feature address.

Heerah recalled, “I was looking at the room, and I was wondering to myself, what did all of these adults come to hear what a 21-year-old has to say? After the event, everybody came to me asking, ‘When is the next event?’ I was thinking of putting on just one event, but God saw an entire organisation.”

Now, at 31, Heerah’s non-profit organisation has grown with her over the last decade. She would go on to establish Pink Gems, producing a series of features highlighting breast cancer survivors. Her third initiative was HUGS (Holding Up Girls Standards), travelling the length and breadth of T&T and talking to girls about maintaining a high standard for themselves.

Building on the success of HUGS, she would launch HUBS (Holding Up Boys Strengths), allowing boys to take the lead. For the young woman who had once been wallowing over the wilt of her psychology degree, Heerah’s life had taken on a certain meaning and purpose.

She recalls, “I actually had the moment where I thought people may be graduating this year, but I gave birth to an entire company. I started to realise that success looks differently for different people and that perspective changes everything. That’s why we must never compare.”

Heerah’s rise would continue to garner national attention. She would be selected as part of the Youth Ministry’s 40 Under 40 National Influencer’s Mentorship Programme, inspiring young people across the nation to live more positive lives. She would go on to complete an MBA at Anglia Ruskin University, graduating as the valedictorian.

A faith-filled journey

Following that academic achievement, she embarked on a mission trip through the Middle East and North Africa region. It would change her life forever. Her experiences and encounters would further shape her spiritually and harness her cultural intelligence to work in a world of different beliefs and traditions.

Every conversation with Heerah throws up God. I had not even asked her about her faith yet, and she had already mentioned it five times. “My dad likes to say, ‘Where is God on your list? Is God number one on your list?’ And he says ‘God cannot even be number one on your list because he needs to be the centre of it all,’” she said.

Heerah wants more people to develop a personal relationship with God, which she believes will redound to their benefit.

She added, “There is a need to have, first and foremost, a relationship with God. You need to see what that looks like. It’s not a remedy for intimacy. It’s a lifestyle. Is it journalling? Is it listening to worship? Is it going to church? It’s a lifestyle we need to have.”

Heerah is adamant that it is by God’s grace she has managed to kick on from many setbacks she has suffered throughout her life.

Faith first, but family not far behind

The foundation of her faith in Jesus Christ was built by her parents. Family comes a close second to her faith. She’s the first of three children. If her surname sounds familiar, it is because her father is Commander Garvin Heerah, who was once the executive director of the National Operations Centre and continues to be the go-to person for matters of national and transnational security in the country.

“I am my father. I am the female version of him,” Heerah chuckles. She speaks glowingly of her father’s impact, saying, “My dad has had a huge influence on my life. He is part of the reason I am who I am today. Having a military background, discipline is very strong in our family. There are a lot of things my friends were allowed to do that I was not allowed to do. Even at this age, if there is a place where a crime has happened, we cannot go to that place for like three months.”

Heerah describes her father as strong, resilient, and loving—qualities she has adopted from him.

“He is the perfect man in my eyes,” she says. While her father is a national figure, Heerah said her mother, Lorraine, was quite the opposite but equally as influential. She labels her “the engine room” of the family. Lorraine left her job to ensure each of her children was taken care of at home.

Heerah has heaped praise on her mother for her selfless act, saying, “People who are working eight to four can never compare to a full-time homemaker because there is no clock out when you’re a homemaker.”

For Heerah, her family has laid the foundation for the success she has had. It’s a foundation built on faith but also discipline. From that foundation, Heerah now aims to help build, and in other cases rebuild, the lives of those she encounters on life’s journey.

“It’s never about making a name for me but about making Christ’s name known,” she says.

As the world confronts the challenges of the 21st century, Heerah begins the task of equipping the next generation of leaders who will have to solve those problems, equipping them with the new tools required to live and thrive in an AI era that the world is still very much new to.

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