IT'S a book which can either be carelessly or deliberately left to lie on your coffee table as is often seen in presentations of designer homes.
The 12 x 9 inches hardcover with glossy cover photograph titled "The Voyage of the Mediterranean Star" -The First Fifty Years - An Anniversary Publication 1950-2000, gives vivid details with accompanying pictures of the life and work of The Syrian Lebanese Women's Association of Trinidad and Tobago over this period of time. A voyage which started with just twelve women on board and fifty years later has a crew of about three hundred, not to mention a fleet of three smaller vessels- the San Fernando Branch founded in1967, Barbados Branch in 1963 and The Syrian Lebanese Youth Group (TRISLY).
The Association chose what is described as its "highest feast day - Mother's Day" which has been celebrated from the first year by he membership with a non-fundraising luncheon, to officially launch the book researched and written by Alice and Gerard Besson, in La Boucan of the Hilton Hotel. Always observed on the Monday immediately after the Sunday of Mother's Day, it is the one occasion for the members just to sit down and celebrate, without any catering or entertainment duties. A day on which a Mother of The Year is selected and other awards are presented, acknowledging areas of service and dedication to the association. Dula Aboud was chosen Mother of the Year 2000/1.
The book is written in unusual form with quotes from the women of the club and those of us, like myself, Rhonda Maingot of the Living Water Community and Zalayhar Hassanali, former First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago, who have enjoyed the association's gracious hospitality for decades while observing the work they have done and continue to do in this country.
The Voyage starts before the association, with "A New Home In The New World" when in the early 1900's some adventurous, young men from The Lebanon saw no prospects for themselves in their home country and came to Trinidad, followed by the Syrians from the Valley of the Christians by 1906. At that time those who wanted to continue to the United States had to change ships in Trinidad, but be it by mistake or design, some of the Arabs who alighted in Port of Spain, stayed on. and in time sent home for their brothers, nephews, cousins and in some cases their wives so that by the 1920's and 1930's many young women of Arab descent had arrived in Port of Spain to raise families and lend support to their husbands.
Among the first arrivals was ninety year old Rahme Hajal, who today lives at Sydenham Avenue, and received an award at the Mother's Day function for her long service to the club. "I was having my first boy on the travel, on the ship, when we were in the Madeira water. I was 16. We come to Marseilles and I couldn't have time to have the baby over there , so he was born on the ship. In Trinidad, ship stay far away in deep water, so you had a boat to bring us on the land. So they came to meet us, Mr Abdou Sabga and Ayoub Saga. Only seven days I have the baby! They wanted me to go down a big ladder and when Ayoub Sabga come, he said: "What is that? My husband said: "My wife had a baby." So Ayoub Sabga said :"Well, this will be my godchild."
Apart from two female peddlers of the 1920's, Susane Kousa and Rahme Sabga, the Arab women-folk in those days stayed at home and took care of their households. But Rahme Hajal continued to be adventurous and started a garment manufacturing business in an annex at her home employing seven local girls. "I sew can can, mosquito net, pants, what you go to wedding with (culottes), bumpers for the crib, things for the bed. If you see the lovely turban I make. I buy organdy, like a voile, all in different colours. I cut it to make a flower and stick it on."
But it was not until 1950 that the association's voyage really got underway when Shafia Faye, a relative of the Sabgas of Trinidad, on a visit from Pennsylvania in the United States, stepped from a Woodbrook trolley bus at the foot of Grey Street to visit her family and joined two young cousins, Venus and Minerva Sabga, on the porch of the family home at No 18 Herbert Street, that the club for women was formed. Today, fifty years later, the motto written by Faye still exists and at every meeting the ladies pay tribute to Faye's memory by holding hands and opening the meeting with the motto that Shafia, who passed away in 1985 at age 87, had given them in 1950. dedicating the hostess' home as the very first line says as "A place where kindly thoughts are cherished." And continuing "where high ideals are fed and nourished, where charity, in all its beauty, is held to be a sacred duty, where peace and harmony abound and members meet on common ground."
The first meeting of "The Mediterranean Star", the name chosen by Faye, was held on a Wednesday morning in August 1950 at Minerva and Tony Sabga's home at 65 Alfredo Street. Shafia emphasized that the club would serve a threefold function: it would help the women to help less fortunate people; it would keep their culture alive; and it would help them to embrace each other. The twelve women all agreed to meet the following Wednesday morning at the Sabga home on Herbert Street. This was the humble beginnings of what is now the vibrant Syrian Lebanese Women's Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Before the change in the eighties to the present name, another name change was made in 1957 to The Syrian Lebanese Women's Charitable Organisation, a name which it is said defined unmistakably what the association was all about.
And says Minerva Sabga, who has been president an unprecedented seven times and whose daughter Linda Hadeed is the current president "we never wasted a cent, we worked hard and we didn't have waitresses and all those fancy things the younger members have. We did the work ourselves. We cooked, we washed, we packed, we served, we swept and mopped, and all that to save five dollars! We figured it was charity money and we had to do it. No task was too menial." Following closely in Minerva's footsteps, May Salloum has been president six times. Antoinette George, Alma Matouk, Venus Sabga, Katrine Aboud and Hadeed have served three times each, and Mona George and Paula Moses twice.
Not only has the club received a national award in 1990- the Public Service Medal of Merit (silver) for community work, but in 1975 Minerva Sabga received the Humming Bird Medal Gold for community service, coincidentally, on the 25th anniversary of the association that she co-founded.