On a mission to make a positive impact in an intricate world… Dr. Dawn Stewart is a ‘Special Person’

Sep 22, 2019 News, Special Person

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“From a very tender age I made the decision to go down in time as a woman who defied all the odds…I wanted to be remembered as a force to be reckoned with in all my endeavours. Living a fulfilling life for me, meant examining and exploring all avenues and opportunities to create a prosperous trail for my women folk to follow.”

By Alex Wayne

Born in an era when women weren’t remotely afforded equal opportunities as men, Dr. Dawn Stewart was able to defy the odds in her quest to make a difference in the lives of the sick and less fortunate.

While some refer to her as a tower of feminine strength, there are quite a few who are convinced that she is an angel sent to rescue them from unfortunate circumstances.
In some cases too, she has been regarded a daredevil, especially when the many strides she has made in various areas are taken into consideration.
Over the years she has been able to muster all her strength and talents into becoming a phenomenal advocate for saving lives, even as she devotes her time and energies towards creating an avenue for the voices of humanity.
Although currently 65 years old, Dr. Stewart describes herself as being young at heart and still raring to continue her dedicated quest to devote her life to bringing aid and hope to many deserving individuals.
By virtue of her qualifications, her exploits have been many, in fact far too many to be adequately captured in these pages.
WHO IS SHE?
Aside from being a counsellor, she is a qualified safety and occupational health expert who retired some years ago from the United States (US) Department of Defence. She is also a retired professional nurse and currently shares her knowledge by being a part-time lecturer to students of the University of Guyana’s Health Sciences Faculty.
With a Bachelor’s of Science in Social Psychology from the University of Maryland and Masters of Public Administration with a Minor in clinical psychology from Troy State University, she is a staunch advocate for mental wellbeing.

As such, she provides counselling to victims of mental and physical trauma, the sexually abused, among others. Understandably, she is also an advocate for suicide prevention.
With her vast knowledge and experience she was able to expand her horizon even further when in July of 2016 she was elected the civil society representative to Guyana’s Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM).
The CCM was established as an oversight apparatus for the effective implementation of grants provided to Guyana by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The mandate of the CCM is to coordinate the preparation and approve proposals for submission to the Global Fund and to monitor the implementation of all approved grants.
The CCM focuses on performance by linking Global Fund resources to the achievement of clear, measurable and sustainable results based upon agreed monitoring indicators.
That aside, she is also the Founder and CEO of the Guyana-based Monique’s Helping Hands organization, which was named after the daughter of one of the organisation’s overseas volunteers who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS during her preparation to migrate permanently to the US. She reportedly succumbed to the dreaded disease two years after her diagnosis.
The NGO is one that deals with social issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, mental health and suicide related issues.

EARLY DAYS
But despite her years of hard work, Dr. Stewart did find time for love. She is currently wife to Gordon Lyken, who is in fact the nephew of the co-founder of Lyken Funeral Parlour, which has been in existence for over 95 years.
She is, moreover, an integral part of this family business serving not only as a grief counsellor, but also a certified embalmer.
Reflecting on her past, Dr. Stewart during her interview revealed that she grew up in the compound of the Guyana Police Force, Eve Leary headquarters with her mother Olga Stewart and father, Henry Fraser, who was an officer there.
During her early teenage years, the family moved to another location in the city, now referred to as Carifesta Avenue. During that period she attended the then Kingston Methodist School, and then Christ Church Secondary. She remembers her father as a World War 2 veteran who returned home with lots of chilling stories.
Also well etched in her memory is the fact that she grew up as a ‘tom boy’ and was fond of playing hockey at the Guyana Golf Course which was located in the same area where the National Park is now situated. Being a very brilliant student, she wrote and excelled at all her secondary level exams and soon after was on her way to the US to pursue her dreams of making a positive difference as a female.

She was enlisted at the Long Island University where she successfully completed the Registered Nurse programme. In 1975 she decided to join the US Air Force as a nurse and that is where her flight to fame and positivity took off. She spent six years in the Women Air Corps, using every opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the persons she encountered.
“While in the Air Force I was consigned to take care of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi also known as Mohammad Reza Shah. He was the last King (Shah) of Iran from 16 September, 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February, 1979. At that time he was in exile in the US and fell very ill. I was his nurse, and oh boy what a crush I had on his two very attractive sons. They were well built with chiselled bodies and eyes like green sapphire. I flirted with them at every opportunity, but they never offered me anything more than a polite smile or very little conversation. For them I was just the nurse and that’s that… Besides they were all Muslims, and were very reserved so to speak…” she recounted during her interview.

BREAKING BARRIERS
In 1981, Dr Stewart recalled leaving the Air Force, getting married and eventually giving birth to three children – Rameila, Roger and Ryan Stewart – who are ages 41, 38 and 30 respectively. Later she gave birth to another child, Realli, currently 19, who is the product of a subsequent marriage.
But marriage and kids never stopped Dr. Stewart from pursuing her dreams, and so in 1984 she flew to Germany to climb even higher heights. There she was able to work as a Surveyor and Safety and Health Officer for the US Department of Defence. She also performed in the capacity of Internal Hygienist, she pursued even more aspirations.
“Marriage nor kids were going to stop me from surpassing expectations, and breaking down barriers… As a woman I never listened to or believed that the feminine gender was designed to be constrained to boundaries designed for them by their male counterparts. Instead, I was always of the opinion that women should let the sky be their limit and live meaningful and impacting lives,” she disclosed.
She added, “From a very tender age I made the decision to go down in time as a woman who defied all the odds…I wanted to be remembered as a force to be reckoned with in all my endeavours. Living a fulfilling life for me, meant examining and exploring all avenues and opportunities to create a prosperous trail for my women folk to follow.”
In 1980 she worked with soldiers in the US Army doing Psychology Assessment. She also served as Director of Health and Safety at Fort Rucker, a US Army base, and remembers working at the Landstuhl Medical Centre, Kaiser Sakaluran, Germany, before being reassigned to the Pentagon headquarters building of the United States Department of Defence, functioning in the same capacity.

Around the same time she also taught psychology at the Northern Virginia Community College. She was eventually transferred to the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in 2001, where she functioned as Director responsible for soldiers returning from Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War between the period August 2, 1990 and February 28, 1991.
When the soldiers returned from the Gulf War, she was there with them and many of them nicknamed her the ‘Modern Day Florence Nightingale’ because of the tender care she bestowed on them.
DRIVEN BY PASSION
But life wasn’t only about Army work for Dr. Stewart. Collaborating with friends and colleagues, she lobbied Congress in the US to pass the bill for the National Caribbean Heritage Month celebration in June.

The White House has since issued an annual proclamation recognizing June as Caribbean-American Heritage Month. She had also collaborated with a friend, Dr. Clair Nelson, and others, to lobby Congress for the passage of a number of other bills. “Among them, is the popular, Soca de Vote/Reggae de Poles, during President Obama’s, electoral campaign,” she recalled.
She has many more outstanding achievements under her belt, but for her, becoming affiliated with the Monique’s Helping Hands organisation has been the most gratifying.
Her decision to join the HIV/AIDS fight here through that organisation came at a time, she recalled, when Guyana was recording a rapidly climbing percentage of cases.
She arrived in Guyana sometime in 2005 and was well aware of the situation here, since she had used her overseas affiliations to conduct a survey on the Caribbean. In fact this affiliation saw the birth of the Caribbean People International Collective Inc. (CPIC), a non-profit, non-partisan organization that dealt with HIV/AIDS and other issues.
Upon her return to Guyana, she quickly became popular through her exploits with Monique Caring Hands Inc., which was in fact the local chapter of CPIC.
She, over the years, has been able to care for many persons with paranoia, depression and other mental health issues who seek the services of the organisation. Many of the individuals she offers her care to have either been sexually or physically abused for extended periods.
She continues to offer her priceless service to many through the organisation which is situated at Lot 18 Norton Street, Werk-en-Rust.
The NGO continues to function as a support Centre with programmes designed to meet the “unique” needs of families infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, suicide, domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking and poverty,” Dr. Stewart said.
The intention, she added, is to increase the number of persons who receive voluntary HIV counselling, to increase testing among sexually active persons and pregnant women, while at the same time promoting abstinence, condom use and monogamous relationships.
The organisation has in place a number of programmes to achieve its goals including: the SISTA Project, International Youth Summit, peer counselling, condom use incentive plan, behavioural care model incentive plan, women health and support care, men’s health and support care, testing, hot food service kitchen, and the MISTA project.
So efficient the organisation has been in helping to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS, that Guyana is no longer viewed by international donors as a high-risk nation. Moreover, funding has been dwindling, and the organisation has been depending mostly on fundraisers to keep its other programmes going.
But Dr. Stewart is certainly not prepared to hang up her gloves, instead she has started another fight, and she certainly doesn’t intend to fail. Recently she was elected a Councillor of the City Council and has every intention of continuing to make a positive difference in society.
For her continued effort at helping to making a difference, today we at Kaieteur News recognise Dr. Dawn Stewart as our ‘Special Person’.

 

 

 

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