Nations University Director to receive British Award for tireless work in education

Dec 23, 2018 News

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Dr. Brian O’Toole, one of the Directors at Nations University, will receive a prestigious award from the British government for his years of service in education. He will be given the award at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace from a member of the Royal family.
But an award of this magnitude was long in coming. You see, Dr. O’Toole and his wife, Pamela, left the United Kingdom over 40 years ago to be of service to the Baha’i community of Guyana. In fact, before founding Nations University, the O’Tooles were involved in a number of development projects through the Varqa Foundation, a Bahai-inspired development agency that they founded.
One of the first projects that they worked on was in partnership with the Guyana Office of Social and Economic Development that developed the ‘Bahai Community Health Partnership’ [BCHP] in the Rupununi. This was selflessly spearheaded by Dr. Jamshid Aidun, who spent several years serving the health needs of the area at a time when there was no doctor in the entire Rupununi Region.

Dr. O’Toole recalled the vivid image of Dr. Aidun “walking part of the distance to Karasabai, after having swum across a creek, walking in his bare ‘buckta’, coffee mug in one hand, and a stick in the other, looking like a latter-day Ghandi.”
The Community Based Rehabilitation [CBR] programme was pioneered along with Ms. Geraldine Maison Halls. The CBR programme was able to reach thousands of people with disabilities in almost all the regions of Guyana. It attracted visitors from many countries too, and resulted in more than 30 articles in leading international journals, two books, and a series of video programmes that were translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Arabic, Farsi and Amharic.
Out of the work in the Rupununi the literacy programme, ‘On the Wings of Words’, was developed, that trained literacy facilitators in seven of the regions of Guyana and received support from Canadian International Development Agency [CIDA], the British Embassy, the Luxembourg government, the Guyana Book Foundation and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF].
Dr. O’Toole commented, “Laureen Pierre and Juliet Solomon worked with both the BCHP and the CBR programme for years in the interior of Guyana, earning the deep respect of so many persons for their dedication, detachment, and ability to connect with persons from all backgrounds.”
As the BCHP and the CBR programmes grew, they attracted visitors from many parts of the world, including Sweden, Italy, Mauritania, India, North America and India. The funders, AIFO from Italy, allowed great flexibility in the work in the Rupununi. The other major funder, Unity Foundation from Luxembourg, also proved to be invaluable partners as they struggled to learn what development might mean in practice.
These development efforts were mirrored by so many persons in Guyana as School of the Nations began to emerge 20 years ago. Nations began with five children, 40 years ago, and has now grown to 3,600 students from more than 34 countries and partnerships with the Universities of Cambridge, London and Bedfordshire in the UK.
After many years renting property in Kingston, Georgetown, the O’Tooles decided to purchase the old Woodbine Hotel property on the fringes of Tiger Bay. Dr O’Toole commented, “At the time a number of parents were concerned by the perception of the area; however, over the years more than 100 children from Tiger Bay came to Nations two or three afternoons per week for free classes in literacy, numeracy, art and music. Eight children from Tiger Bay were given scholarships to attend Nations.”
Nations won a contract recently to undertake a USAID project in Sophia and East La Penitence. This formed part of the very vibrant service project at Nations, whereby 20 Sixth Formers at Nations were the mentors for the programme.
A Baha’i couple from Canada, Gordon and Ellen Naylor, came to Guyana in 1978 at the same time as the O’Tooles . They served in Guyana for seven years and then went back to Canada to develop Nancy Campbell Academy [NCA] which has developed into one of the most visionary schools in Ontario. Nations and Nancy Campbell are now sister schools each enriching the other. Last month 18 students from Nations spent one week at Nancy Campbell to learn about World Citizenship, the Performing Arts and the Ruhi Institute.
Another partnership that Nations has developed is with London International Academy [LIA] in Ontario, Canada. A group from Nations recently went to LIA to learn about Robotics, and another group is set to go in February and will then develop a Robotics programme for primary and secondary children at Nations.
Other exchange visits are now planned for The Gambia, in West Africa, where Nations has a partnership with the visionary Non-Governmental Organisation [NGO], Starfish, and another partnership with schools in Ningbo and Lanzhou in China.
The Sixth Form Student Council is in the process of raising funds to bring two students from each of Afghanistan and The Gambia to study at Nations.
Dr. O’Toole added, “The growth of Nations over the years was only possible because of the support, guidance, hard work and skills of a special group of administrators at Nations including: Orin Ross, Mischka White, Pam Daniels, Wazir Khan, Mark Boodie, Cheryl Semple, Taslikiyha Stewart, Ms Bacchus, Kalesh Ramsaroop, Ranie Kellawan, Akasha Persaud, Malessia Daniels, Felicia Mohamed, and Marcia Trotman.”
“We also have gathered together a very gifted cadre of teachers, from Trinidad and Guyana, who manage the myriad courses on offer at Nations, these include: Kamla Da Silva, Corrie Shepherd, Ravi Boodoo from Trinidad and Terrence Jaskarran, Ashme Singh, Hodiyah Stewart and Archie Chinatambi,” the Nations Director shared.
Nations recently recruited Dr. Dexter Phillips and his wife Simone, after 15 years of working in international schools in China and Philippines, to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer at Nations, and already they have made their mark, Dr. O’Toole noted.
Twenty years ago, Nations was just an idea, and it was the support of people the likes of “the Oditts, McDonalds, Fernandes and others, who saw the end in the beginning and entrusted us with their children. Now 20 years later, they are trusting us with their grandchildren,” he added.
He underscored too that, “none of the above, of course, would have been possible without the support, creativity, perseverance and sheer force of personability of Mrs Pamela O’Toole. She would be the last to acknowledge such attributes, but whatever Nations has achieved is very much hers.”
The fellow Directors at Nations, their sons, Liam and Cairan, have provided invaluable support and guidance in so many areas. Under their stewardship, Brian and Pamela are confident that Nations will continue to be in very good hands.

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