GUYANESE Karen De Souza has won one of the recently received 2014 Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence.She was awarded, like Professor Liam Teague, Director of University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Unit at St. Augustine, Dr. Richard Robertson, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for public and civic contributions.

De Souza is Co-Founder of the advocacy organisation Red Thread which supports victims of rape, domestic and other violence, among the lowest-waged sectors of women in Guyana.
She is a pioneer in public education, having scripted and produced videos and drama on domestic violence and sexual abuse, the citation said.
Teague, a pannist, said T&T has only scratched the surface in discovering the potential of steelband, the national instrument.
One of pioneers, he declared it was miraculous that they had been able to work against the odds to make the pan a legitimate instrument and committed himself to taking it to higher levels in whatever way he can.

Special function
Teague got the award for his work in the field of arts and letters and his and the others were presented during a special function in UTC Theatre One of the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port-of-Spain on Saturday evening.
Among those in the audience were Finance and the Economy Minister Larry Howai and A. Norman Sabga, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ansa Mc AL Group of Companies.
Teague, a professor of Music at Northern Illinois University, arranges for bands in the National Panorama Competition. He is also a recipient of the Humming Bird Medal (Silver) and has promoted the steelpan internationally, collaborating with renowned composers to compose steelband music.
Robertson, after receiving his award said there was need for greater support from Government for the work of the UWI Seismic Research Centre.
He said the time had come for those in authority to build resilience to natural hazards in the region.
“We need help to support applied research that is relevant and can provide significant impact on our national and regional agenda,” he said.
Robertson said the UWI Seismic Research Centre would like to move away from simply monitoring, data collection and research to the creation of useful tools that policy makers and planners can apply to guarantee that development is sustained as desired.
He said knowledge about hazards is not kept among the scientific community but disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders.

Have abandoned
Chairman of the Regional Eminent Persons Selection Panel, former Independent Senator Michael Mansoor said it appears that “our leaders have abandoned the possibilities of regional integration” as they are “yet to articulate and introduce appropriate responses to bend the adverse currents that affect us.”
Among the challenges which affect the region, he said, are uncertainties about the future, globalisation and the lingering effects of the global recession.
Mansoor warned that the work of the laureates is critically important to the creation of a Caribbean space and development and advancement of every Caribbean citizen, the Trinidad Guardian reported.