Teresa’s own beat

Teresa Lynch is walking in her father’s footsteps along the path he once took as a councillor, serving the people of Cocoyea/Tarouba in San Fernando.

“You eh see Lynch daughter is a councillor now?” is the remark of many, proud to see Leslie Lynch’s daughter taking up the mantle as a local politician, under the People’s National Movement (PNM), for the district on the San Fernando City Corporation.

Yet Teresa, who takes part in hardcore fitness challenges, has a passion for sewing and an unusual love for numbers, has her own, unique style.

“I’ve been involved in politics since I was nineyears- old because of my dad,” Teresa, 29, says of her father who was a councillor for Cocoyea/ Tarouba for 14 years before leaving politics two local government elections ago.

“He would have opened the doors for me to get into politics, to hear the political talk, the arguments, the banter. And when I got older, I was on Rondell Donawa’s (former councillor) campaign trail for a few walk-abouts, keeping my eyes open on the party and politics on the whole.” When asked just how high her political aspirations go, Teresa, speaking at her campaign office, laughed mischievously.

“For now, I am just focused on being a good councillor.” Teresa won with 1,308 votes against her opponent’s 1,014 in a district with 6,250 registered voters. The district’s voter turn-turn out was consistent with the 34 percent turn-out for the entire election. Many have interpreted the low turn-out as a sign of a population grown weary of its politicians and their parties. Teresa hesitated to agree.

“The real question we have to ask is: What does the low voter turnout really mean?” Her eyes lit up as she considered the numbers. “Local government has always had a low turn-out.

In an area that may have expected 700 voters, you have 100 voters. What is that? This is why we need data. So that we could actually find out what are the issues behind the low turn-out for election.” Teresa’s love for research is seen in her choice of study. After Mon Repos RC Primary School, she attended the then Pleasantville Junior and Senior Comprehensives, and later pursued an undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine.

“We speak very much about diversification, but we have to first diversify our minds. As a guidance counsellor I see it all the time. The first thing you hear is ‘I want to be a doctor’, ‘I want to be a lawyer’.

Very rarely you might hear something strange, a unique field that is coming up.” Her studies landed her a job in the Ministry of Social Development.

“While I was at the Ministry of Social Development, I volunteered with Beverley King, at Com-Talk International, who does work with HIV/AIDS awareness. She invited me to a workshop on nutrition and HIV/ AIDS.” Inspired by this experience, three years after graduating, Teresa entered academia again to pursue a post-graduate diploma in Management of the HIV Infection at UWI.

According to Jacinta Bailey-Sobers, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, in a presentation at the HIV/AIDS Coordinating Unit Health and Knowledge Fair last week, 11,000 people are estimated to have the virus in Trinidad and Tobago. If given the resources, Teresa would like to research whether there is any link between discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS and the country’s high number of cases to present solutions.

However, as is the case for many GATE-funded university graduates, Teresa has not been able to find a job in direct line with her post-graduate diploma, but has converted her studies into service as a Ministry of Education guidance counsellor at Siparia East Secondary School.

Now, she will do so in politics.

“If you want to shed 10 pounds, join a campaign trail,” said Teresa, “It is the easiest weight loss plan you can invest in.” This from a woman who you could find swinging on monkey bars and crawling through mud in the next Hardcore challenge near you She has participated in three challenges so far and only missed this year’s UWI Marathon because of her campaign. As she nudges closer to 30, Teresa plans to ignore her creaky knees and keep going, for the sake of her health and her political service.

Teresa’s first stint on the political scene comes at an interesting time.

The PNM preached autonomy and giving more power to regional corporations, full-time salaries for full-time work from councillors and aldermen, and expanding the Integrity of Public Life Act to include councillors so as to match their increased power with increased accountability, as councillors will have easier access to tax-payer’s dollars.

“It is not so much about more responsibility, but much more autonomy over the area and getting the job done. As it is now, councillors can say they want to do ‘this’ to benefit the community, but they still do not have the final say because it has to go through a lot of red tape,” said Teresa She believes autonomy would go a long way in effecting change, especially in a time of economic decline with few signs of recovery.

“Right now, the requirement is for us to be resourceful, to not only depend on the corporation but on other external bodies like businesses in the community to see how we could fill in those gaps to help the community.” She dubbed herself a “10 am Mass person” and attributes some of her drive and purposefulness to her Catholic faith. She regretted not attending Mass as much during her campaign but said, thankfully, there is always the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Teresa’s focus for the next three years would be on the youth in her community.

“I am looking at setting up homework centres in the community.

But you can’t have plans for youth with nowhere to put them.

Tarouba is expected to get their community centre soon, but even if we have to start with a tent, we will start somewhere.” Teresa urges young people to stop seeing local government elections as unimportant and wants more of them to offer themselves for service in their communities.

“It is not only about the PNM and the UNC.

Very often we blame the party, but it is up to us too. It would be nice for people to look at the call to service and ask ‘why not me?’” During the interview, Teresa’s nine-year-old son knocked on the door and entered the room. “Excuse me, so sorry for interrupting, but mummy may I go by my friend to play?” he asked. At his mother’s side during the campaign, at the same age she was when she accompanied her father, perhaps he will answer the call to service in the next 20 years himself.