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Apr 25, 2021 News, Special Person
Community advocate and transformational leadership consultant…
“A major priority now is ethnic reconciliation. It really hurts me to see how broken our country is due to ethnic divisions.”
By Rehanna Ramsay
Kaieteur News – When Dr. Vedawattie Ram began her career providing developmental leadership support for Christian teachers and students on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara back in the 1990s, she had very little idea that she was stepping into a realm in which she would spend years transforming lives for the better.
Today, she describes herself as a catalyst, innovator and people developer. In fact, Dr. Ram notes that the focus of her efforts is to help improve the quality of people’s lives. “I am a people developer with a visionary outlook,” she said during a recent interview with this publication.
But before she could have taken this position with such confidence, Dr. Ram said that she spent many years, “plowing the proverbial fields.”
During the over three decades of her career, Dr. Ram has worn many hats and served on committees for many projects through her local church and wider community. She has conducted Organisational Leadership Assessment (OLA) of the Grove/Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC); she has performed a situational analysis for 100 local government councillors and has earned international recognition for her collaborative efforts with management programmes in the Caribbean.
While working on her doctorate at Bakke Graduate University (BGU), which she earned in July 2020, Dr. Ram established her own consultancy firm, Catalyst Consulting (Guyana), where she works with various groups on catalysing leadership skills for community and national development. She developed Project Deborah, a women’s mentoring programme offering various focus options (education, family life, non- profit management, etc.) aimed at completing one goal in one year. During her tenure at BGU, Dr. Ram served as a programme assistant and academic advisor for the doctoral programme.
Prior to this, she has been a district staff worker with Inter-School Christian Fellowship, enhancing the lives of students through life skills development, counselling, and by building leadership through student committees.
As a woman of faith, she has been instrumental in the development of the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) in Guyana; a non-profit, Christian organisation founded in August 1995.
As the national director of CEF, Dr. Ram helped to spearhead several developmental projects for children across the country, one of which she says earned her, her proudest career moment and served as a catalyst for the work, which she is now doing.
She explained that at one point, the CEF project, which was designed to support young people in difficult circumstances, assisted 19,512 children and youths through various programmes.
Under the CEF, Dr. Ram and her team were able to provide psychosocial support for children in Agricola during the 2006 crime wave.
Dr. Ram recalled that, “during that time, the community seemed to be under siege by criminal forces.”
“I remember a woman I knew was burnt alive in her house and children in that community were seeing and experiencing major trauma. There was much fear among the people, especially the children in that area but the staff and I took a decision to step in and offer the much-needed intervention,” she said. “We felt compelled to reach out and knew that we could make a direct impact. And we did. I remember people being afraid to go into Agricola, so we outsourced 45 CEF volunteers from Wakenaam, Linden, East Coast Demerara, and Berbice to help out. We partnered with the Wesleyan Bible College as well as pastors and community leaders, and provided face-to-face as well as group counselling for at least 182 children in Agricola,” Dr. Ram said.
LEADERSHIP MODELLED
Besides working to help provide a safe space of healing and reconciliation for youths in troubled communities, the leadership consultant is a doting wife and mother.
She says her most important role is to be a loving wife to Arjune Ram to whom she has been married for 26 years and a devoted mother to her two children Joshua, 24, and Joanna 20.
She revealed that in her 20 plus years with CEF, her small family circle is what keeps her grounded. Her husband has been a sacrificial servant leader, who undergirded her efforts to reach the nation’s children. Family is indeed an important part of this week’s ‘Special Person’s’ model for success.
She told Kaieteur News that she grew up in a 10-sibling household. Her dad, Bandhoo, called Maxbear, was a hardworking truck driver (former lightweight boxer) and her mother, equally industrious, sold bananas and greens at the Stabroek Market.
According to Dr. Ram, “they both complemented each other’s skills and drive to hold our [big] family together.” She recalled that the family moved from Annandale, East Coast Demerara to be with her grandparents at McDoom before moving to Bagotstown and finally settling at Eccles East Bank Demerara after her father purchased their home in 1970.
Among her cherished childhood memories is climbing a big mango tree in their yard for “quiet-time with God” something she admitted to doing often after adopting her Christian faith at the age of 10.
Dr. Ram believes that her decision to follow Christ during a Bible Club at school has helped shape her worldview and servant leadership posture to date.
Additionally, she noted that her father helped to shape those positive qualities in her at a young age.
“My dad taught me to value gifts that he saw in me. He was my cheerleader and hero…What he said to me at a time when I was deeply troubled is embedded in my psyche for life. He said, ‘you have personality, charisma; you can do anything, which you set your mind to,’” she said, adding that she admired her mother and sisters who were also efficient managers.
“Everyone worked in my family. My attitude to work and tendency to plan, I believe came as a result of the modelling I saw at home,” added Dr. Ram.
Added to that, Dr. Ram says her aptitude for leadership was always evident as even at high school, she would speak to the student body on several occasions to encourage students to give or fund a project.
In retrospect, she asserted that these early years provided a glimpse into the future, “of me wanting to empower others and build community and structure around specific causes.”
Dr. Ram recalled that among her first official roles to lead was while she was involved with the Inter School Christian Fellowship group while at high school.
Then, as part of her objective to grow in her faith after completing school, Dr. Ram attended the Wesleyan Bible College and gained a Bachelor’s degree in Christian Education.
SHAPING FUTURES
During her stint at Bible College and Inter School Fellowship, Dr. Ram longed for advanced curriculum-development training and resources to meet the spiritual needs of children. This desire led her to Missouri at the Children’s Ministry Institute.
After returning with literally “two boxes and a five-year plan,” the daunting task ahead was to implement the ministry. There was no capital for this kind of a social enterprise, no typewriter, no phone, no office, no salary, no staff… How was she going to realise this mission to reach children? With the help of her husband, she started a promotional campaign. In the first few years, a team of committed workers – Petronella Farnum, Margaret Smith, Pratima Sukrah, and Mohabir Budhu – joined the organisation. “I always longed to experience synergy at work; it happened in CEF,” she intimated.
Over her tenure in CEF, Dr. Ram said that 14 full-time workers joined the team; a suite of 10 children outreach programmes was developed; six local areas were established in the country with local boards. Outreach programmes to children in all 10 administrative regions of Guyana were realised with sustainable efforts in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10.
She noted too that some 877 plus volunteers have been mobilised and over 5000 Guyanese trained.
Dr. Ram also assisted with the deployment of trained staff to establish chapters in islands of the Caribbean — St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent, Montserrat and Anguilla.
And for its commitment to the dimensions of work, CEF was able to cop an organisational award for the years 2006-2007, Dr. Ram related with pride.
In fact, she said that Guyana was the only Caribbean country to receive the Bronze Medallion Award for its work with CEF. She noted that being a recipient of the award was another highlight of her career.
The US, she said, was “astonished by the advancement of the programme through this small group from a third world country.”
Dr. Ram noted that the officials at the US conference were amazed that CEF Guyana had many interventions and even asked her to do a presentation at the state leadership conference in 2011, which she titled “Two Boxes and a Vision.” She said, “The Guyana chapter grew with a leadership model that preserved an interconnection of three practices – maintaining Christ’s lordship, fleshing out servant leadership and intentionally building a legacy for future workers/visionaries. I am so pleased to see advancements and quality of work in the organisation at present.”
As with every line of work, there are challenges and Dr. Ram noted that one of the main barriers to implementing adequate leadership at the various levels is the mindset of over-dependence on the boss-man. The hierarchical, top-down approach, she noted, is quite common in the Guyana context and it often stymies development especially at the community level. Dr. Ram found too that the typical response to a community need is to blame or shame.
“I realised that this was very common during my work with local government groups. There is often an over dependence on those in higher authority to bring the solutions, find the answers, when these persons can actually mobilise resources and solve the problem. On the other hand, an unhealthy paternalistic type of leadership from those in higher authority, doesn’t help to grow innovativeness and leaves little room for the development of other leaders,” she said, adding, “I remember when someone from Bagotstown said to me ‘we have tried so often to make a change in Bagotstown but we failed each time. Please do not let us fail again.’”
In 2019, Dr. Ram was able to set up a community connection leadership team in partnership with their councillor to focus on immediate improvement plans.
As part of her work to promote this type of leadership that empowers and transforms, Dr. Ram is currently working on a project that will help foster neighbourhood unity.
“A major priority now is ethnic reconciliation. It really hurts me to see how broken our country is due to ethnic divisions,” she said.
Dr. Ram excitedly shared, “The Wesleyan Church is working to implement a resolution taken in 2020 to adopt measures for a focused, solutions-oriented, long-term Bible-based racial reconciliation agenda across its districts.”
This action was taken as a result of weekly connections with a small group of leaders who did self-introspection, honestly examining racial biases and having candid conversations about the racial insecurities that exist, especially between Africans and Indians.
She added that given the need for such a programme, she is hoping to make corporate and other representation to advocate for racial and ethnic reconciliation in other aspects of society.
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