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Feb 02, 2020 News, Special Person
“Surround yourself with people who will aid in you reaching your full potential…you can be anything you desire to be, it just means you have to work hard to make that dream a reality. Stay positive, stay strong, stay ambitious, stay focused and stay fighting.”
By Sharmain Grainger
Women are increasingly becoming more professionally versatile, so much so that they have been infiltrating, with proficiency, jobs that were traditionally dominated by men. In essence, women have been making their mark in the world in just about every faction of society, even as they continue to master the art of being ‘super nurturing’ beings.
Understanding this all-encompassing role of the modern woman, is a young woman by the name of Tomica Bacchus. Inspired by a few persons including another woman, her great aunt – Collette Mc Curdy, Tomica decided to take a leap of faith into the science world, which she has been dominating, in keeping with her portfolio to help the judicial system unmask scientific answers in legal investigations.
As she thoughtfully reflected on how she made the decision to head down this path during a recent interview, Tomica said, “I wouldn’t say it’s one person, but mainly my great aunt; she is also a woman in science.”
Driven by a passion to be the best she can be possibly be, Tomica has for the past six years, resiliently held down the post of Forensic Toxicologist [Science Officer] at the Guyana Forensics Science Laboratory at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown. With pride, she explained the importance of the professional role she plays at the lab.
“It is a critical part of the judicial system; we say what the evidence is or what it is not, which then aids in the legal investigations.”
But from whence did this science-driven lass come?
EARLY BEGINNINGS
Born Tomica Anastacia Bacchus on March 3, 1989, she is the second of three children her mother Yonette Bacchus raised. “I am a town girl,” joked Tomica, as she remembered growing up at Brickdam, Stabroek, in the capital city.
As a young girl, her initiation into the education system was at the South Road Nursery School and continued at St. Margaret’s Primary, before she moved on to Christ Church Secondary for her induction to secondary instruction.
She has many fond memories of her upbringing. Among her favourites would be the days she was allowed to hang with her older cousins, and when she got a chance to “whip something up in the kitchen”. This by someone who considers herself “a kitchen mechanic”.
But even though she could have easily made a full-time career of creating mouth-watering delicacies, Tomica was already inspired enough to embrace the field of science, professionally. In fact, she developed such a love for science, that it helped to open her eyes to the dire need for such professionals in this part of the world. She dreamt of being skilled enough to work in a forensic laboratory one day.
EMBRACING SCIENCE
Her professional training to become a Science Officer all started in 2010 at the University of Guyana, where she pursued a Bachelor of Science [BSc] in Medical Technology. She later went on to complete her Master’s in Forensic Science at the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus in Jamaica, majoring in Toxicology.
As part of her journey to become the professional she is today, Tomica was also exposed to a number of other training programmes offered by various institutions, both locally and internationally.
With her training in hand, she was able to land her dream job of working in a forensic laboratory. But she hadn’t a clue that this would have become a reality. This is in light of the fact that her Medical Technologist training had landed her a job at a private hospital, where she worked for quite a few years, before she became overtly zealous to pursue Forensic Science as a career.
When asked about the requirements of her job at the national forensic lab, Tomica explained, “This entails the testing of biological samples for poisons, drugs of abuse, therapeutic drugs, heavy metals or any chemical to aid in medico-legal
investigations.”The qualifications she wields could have made greener pastures especially enticing to her, but according to Tomica, she sees offering her services here in Guyana as her patriotic duty. “This is home, I love it here, and I want to serve and be a part of the change that we seek,” said Tomica, as she considered the critical role she plays in the Forensic Lab.
Commissioned in 2014, the Forensic Laboratory is a Government of Guyana initiative with a long-term goal to provide quality laboratory service to support forensic and non-forensic investigations. The facility, moreover, is one that offers forensic analysis on samples related to criminal investigations in the areas of toxicology, questioned documents analysis, trace evidence and chemical analysis and non-forensic laboratory testing relating to matters not associated with criminal investigations.
As such, the stated mission of the laboratory is to “…provide a quality scientific service to its clients, thus fulfilling its key mandate in
being an effective arm of the judicial system…foster professional relationships with agencies and academic institutions that will keep it abreast with the trends, and so adapt its methodologies, thus ensuring absolute competency and efficiency.”
FAMILY LIFE
Although her work at the Forensic Lab consumes a great deal of her time, Tomica has learnt, over the years, to be an excellent manager of her time. This is important, since she is the mother of a six-year old daughter, Tahirah, who she intends to inspire to become the best possible human being. In fact, Tomica is hopeful to one day grow her family. Describing her daughter as “adorable”, Tomica is eyeing a life filled with even more “adorable” little ones. “I’m single [right now] but I definitely want to get married and have more babies,” she admitted.
But it isn’t always easy to balance her work life with family life, Tomica said, as she admitted, “It’s hard, I need more hours in my day sometimes, but it helps that I’m not really a social person, so if I’m not at work, I’m at home.”
As she considered her 30 years of existence, Tomica is of the belief that her greatest achievement has been mothering her daughter. “I would say my greatest achievement is being a mother and watching my baby girl grow up in front of my eyes into this amazing little being, but some people don’t consider making a baby an accomplishment. So I would say the completion of my academics with honours and placing a spot at my dream job at a forensic lab…” said Tomica, as she jokingly added “my heart is almost filled.”
But even though her life is consumed by work and caring for her daughter, Tomica has been able to use science to her advantage to accomplish yet another feat. She has been able to establish Amani’s Kitchen, from which she is able to produce a wide variety of sumptuous edibles. This, of course, helps her to continue to fulfill her long-time favourite pastime of experimenting in the kitchen.
“I am the SHE-E-O [instead of CEO] of Amani’s Kitchen, where I am able to bake and design cakes and other sweet treats for all kinds of events,” said Tomica. Reflecting on her focused upbringing, she has nothing but appreciation for all those who helped steer her into becoming a dedicated and productive native of our dear land.
And just about anyone can achieve this, Tomica believes. She noted, however, that it requires that you: “surround yourself with people who will aid in you reaching your full potential…you can be anything you desire to be, it just means you have to work hard to make that dream a reality. Stay positive, stay strong, stay ambitious, stay focused and stay fighting.”
For being a young, ambitious and very resilient daughter of the soil, with a flair for things science, today we at Kaieteur News bestow Tomica A. Bacchus with our title of ‘Special Person’ in hopes that she will continue to evolve and break even more traditional barriers along the way.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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