I was excited when I learnt that, on Sunday last, my media colleague Shirley Thomas had received an award from the Guyana Division of the Salvation Army, for distinguished service to that humanitarian movement as the Secretary to its Advisory Board.

The award was presented to Ms. Thomas by visiting Territorial Commander of Salvation Army Caribbean Territory, Commissioner Gerrit Marseille, during a Recognition Ceremony, on the occasion of the Army’s 120th Anniversary in Guyana. The venue was the Guyana Pegasus.
The plaque reads: “Presented to Shirley Thomas, Advisory Board Secretary, In recognition of your Significant Achievement in Quality and Length of Service in the Salvation Army; Your High Moral Character and Integrity and Compassionate response to Human Needs.”

Ms. Thomas has been on the Advisory Board for about 19 years, and among her distinguished service to The Army over the years, was her representation of the Advisory Board at the International Advisory Officers’ Conference at the Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island in The Bahamas, in 2008.
But despite being in the media for more than 20 years, Shirley Thomas, a truly award-winning journalist, is a genuine humanist, but prefers the simpler things in life.

She is a humanitarian at heart, one on whom one can call at any given time and find willing and available to lend support.

I met Shirley many years ago, and from the onset she struck me as a person who is well-rounded and learnt. And there is this motherly side of her that drew me to her; and she is the one I can seek when I am in need of proper ‘girl talk’ or advice.

Not so long ago, she was the one that sat with me in prayers when some days were not so well and our only resort was to seek divine intervention. She is a tower of strength and a bulwark of moral support.

I simply do not know how she generates the energy, but she is always on the go, visiting the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) almost on a daily basis, where she is ready to listen to the ailing who have been abandoned by their relatives.

Religiously, Shirley would visit every ward and talk, pray, and even take things that those patients are in need of, such as towels, clothing, and utensils among other things.

She describes herself as a ‘people person’, and I can authenticate that testimony because Shirley is truly such a person.

Growing up, at age 14, she would have to pass the government hospital on her way home from school in Mabaruma, North West District, Region One (Barima/Waini), and she would visit patients and ask them if they needed anything.

This was a daily thing for Shirley, who began working towards satisfying the material needs of those patients. She would even go into her mother’s wardrobe to take clothing and others necessities from the home to those patients.

Her desire was to set up the patients’ little cupboard with the basic necessities, such as a vase of flowers, soap, towels, a few pieces of clothing, and utensils that would make them more comfortable during their stay in the hospital.

It was always in her to help people in distress; and her mother, Iona Allen, was like that too, and was very active in church, she being a Roman Catholic and Parish Lay Charity (PLA) at St. Joseph’s R.CV. Church at Mabaruma. She later became Secretary to the Ladies of Charity department of Our Lady of Fatima Church at Bourda, where she was also organist.
Part of her responsibilities was to take things for senior citizens who were ‘shut ins’ at home, and for the ailing folks at hospitals.

Shirley said her mother was the perfect lady. She spent her time assisting the less fortunate, giving generously from her personal resources. As the organist at Lady of Fatima, she would visit the Palms every Sunday for the church service, in which she played for the residents in a thrilling and heavenly display of musical expertise. The residents eagerly looked forward to that moment each Sunday.

Sadly, Iona Allen passed away in 1994, two weeks after she sustained a fall.

Even when Shirley had first moved to Lamaha Park in 1996, she was the driving force behind family-oriented fun-day, cleaning up campaigns and fund-raising activities in that community, where she introduced the very first children’s party with Santa Claus back then.

Shirley told this publication that, whenever she embarks on a mission, she feels as though she is doing what her mother would have done, and she feels obligated to assist in any way possible.

Shirley has a general calm about her, and she can talk with anyone who is in distress and be able to convince that person that all is not lost. She would often attend funerals and comfort and support bereaved relatives of persons, who may have lost their loved ones tragically.

The mother of one holds a Diploma in Public Communication (UG) and was an Information Officer at Guyana Information Service before she began her media career, in which she won five PAHO/WHO Caribbean Media Awards for Excellence in Health Journalism.

Shirley also secured two environmental (Biodiversity) Reporting Awards, and was afforded a scholarship for the International Conference on Environmental Journalism in the Amazon in Brazil in 2003.

This seasoned freelance journalist was also employed with the Ministry of Health as Campaign Coordinator for the “Me to You” HIV/AIDS Behaviour Change Communication Campaign in 2004-2006.

Shirley also volunteers her services with the Salvation Army Advisory Board – Guyana Division, as Secretary and Public Relations Officer. She sits on the management Committee for the Programme of Abstinence for Guyana, and is the holder of many certificates from overseas scholarships she was awarded for her sterling work in the field of journalism.

From 2003 to 2006, she headed a media HIV Care and Support Group, responding to the needs of Orphans and Vulnerable Children and mothers drawn from the Bourda Prevention-of-Mother-to-Child-Transmission programme, initially with funding from the Ambassador’s Fund for HIV.
Between 2006 and 2008, she attended three Caribbean International HIV Workshops in Barbados and Suriname.
In 2008, Ms. Thomas won the prestigious International AIDS Society Media Scholarship to attend and cover the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, and a Scholarship from the Washington-based National Press Foundation to attend a period of training in reporting on HIV/AIDS.
At the conclusion of the programme, she was accredited a ‘J-2-J-‘’ Fellow in Health and Science Reporting.

By Michel Outridge