MENTAL Health Advocate and Founder of Eagles Empowered to Soar Inc. Sharmin Prince, will today launch ‘Women2Women’ (W2W), a peer-led women’s community group created to provide support, encouragement, and safe spaces for participants to share their journeys in life so far.

Prince emigrated to the United States of America on March 7, 1999, after having spent most of her formative years in Norton Street, Lodge and East La Penitence, and has since been working to create a social empire that she said is aimed at filling every identifiable gap in social circles.

“I may have left Guyana physically, but maintained my involvement in the social sector,” Prince told the Pepperpot Magazine recently, as she readies herself to launch W2W, which was partially birthed in 2009 in a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership class.

W2W Resilience Campaign is also intended to develop women’s interpersonal relations, navigate complex systems, and create support networks and environments for the community.
“I created a model programme for a class assignment, got an A+, and was encouraged to follow through,” she recalled, adding, “I detest hearing non-profit leaders use lack of funding as an excuse for not providing services to vulnerable populations, so the NGOs in my network system will never have to make that statement. I know I have a role to play in the…healing of trauma survivors.”

Director of Logistics for ‘Eagles Empowered’ and Peer Leader for W2W, Councillor Trichria Richards, is thankful for the support that she’s gotten from the group and says she is happy to pay it forward.

“W2W is a platform where women meet to encourage and lift each other up in a positive light; a community of people who are a support system. Being an advocate for mental health awareness and having suffered from intense panic attacks, I found a support group in Eagles Empowered and self-discovery. I am truly happy to be a part of this launch,” Richards expressed.

‘Eagles Empowered’ is a New York-based Non-Governmental Organisation operating nationally and internationally. “Our goal is to reduce inequalities by empowering and igniting support through personal transformation and humanistic services. I created a transformational intervention called Self-Discovery IGNITE to transform lives. W2W began in 2009, logo in 2017, and launch in 2021,” Prince explained.

Prince organises a ‘safe space’ for women in a supportive environment with peer coaches. “Peer coaches are not professional experts, but a woman who chooses to face her life experiences, unclutter the mind to find who and what lies at the core.”
Prince said she is creating a social empire to fill gaps that will ensure dignity and respect reflected through services. “I aim to serve vulnerable populations around the world and to accomplish this, I have to create a well-designed, reliable, and replicable system.”

Apart from launching the W2W network, Prince has managed to distribute more than 2,000 face masks in Guyana at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, fed more than 200 street homeless, distributed more than 100 toys for children, secured funding for 2021 projects and registered the organisation in two other states.

‘Eagles Empowered’ was registered as a Trust Deed in Guyana in August 2020 with a feeding programme for the street homeless population. This programme expanded during the Christmas holiday and also distributed more than 100 toys to vulnerable children. These three events are added to the annual calendar.

Prince said her next step is to share her gifts, talents, and abilities where they are welcomed, and solidify and expand her international collaborations to assist the world.
The W2W campaign will be launched today at 3 pm (EST) and 4 pm (GMT) on Zoom with ID 821 4607 5952 and passcode 625250.