Prominent Women’s Right Activist Magda Pollard Dies

May 10, 2019 News

A prominent Women’s Right Activist Magda Pollard has died. She was 88.
She was born to Muriel and Fitzgerald Pollard, both of them teachers in Buxton, East Coast Demerara. Her father was the head of the Buxton

Ms. Magda Pollard

Congregational School.
The family relocated to Georgetown when she was seven years old, and her father was offered a position to head the Smith Congregational School in Hadfield Street.
Her sisters were at the Bishops’ High School where she would later attend while her brother attended Queen’s College. The year 1941 would mark her entry to the Bishops’ High and the preparation for the spectacular and fruitful future she would have.
Due to her outstanding, disciplined behaviour and continuous display of leadership and loyalty, she was promoted to the Head Girl (Head Prefect) in the last two years of her stay at the institution.
Ms. Pollard received the coveted Fidele Collier Medal, which was bestowed upon students who have contributed significantly to the school.
Upon leaving school in 1950, she followed her parents’ choice of profession and became a teacher at the Broad Street (now Dolphin) Government school.
Four years later, she would move on, with the financial support of her parents, to Scotland to attend Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, to receive training as a Grade 1 teacher.

Ms. Pollard later pursued the Postgraduate Certificate Course at the Queen Elizabeth College, London University, in Home Economics related to Community Development, gaining a distinction.
A large part of her years after university was spent at the Carnegie School of Home Economics in the post of both a lecturer and the Principal.
Appointed as the first Women’s Affairs Officer, the CARICOM Secretariat opened doors for her to influence the lives of women, both in Guyana and across the Caribbean Region.
She daringly accepted the challenge of spearheading a project for the development of women in CARICOM, which set the agenda for the integration of actions and policies to benefit women in regional programmes.
Ms. Pollard’s invaluable contribution with regards to the development of women, captured the region’s attention and earned her several awards and honours, inclusive of the fourth CARICOM Triennial Award for Women in 1993, the 1992 CARIFESTA Award for Women, two national awards, the Cacique Crown of Honour and the Golden Arrow of Achievement as well as the special award of the Caribbean Association of Home Economists of which she was a founding member.
A woman highly respected, who carried herself with nothing but grace and dignity, Ms. Pollard paved the way and set an example for young women to follow.
Her contributions both nationally and regionally will not go in vain. Her name lives on and she will forever be remembered for the great deeds she did.

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