Ghenere Heerah focuses on the future, family and faith

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Ghenere Heerah’s life revolves around four words: faith, family, women and the future.

Her faith is the center of her life, with her family as the foundation. Her name, Ghenere, means God’s gift. She has spent the past decade focused on inspiring women to live their best lives.

Her focus has shifted to ensuring that the future of our world is equipped with the tools it needs to live and lead. That focus on Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) has led her to New York City, where she currently oversees her most recent project supporting the leadership of Morrison Mentors, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) organization based on Long Island.

She leads ‘Next Gen’ teams that help young students transform their lives to meet the demands of the future through technology and innovation.

‘Success looks different for everyone’

Heerah’s work, however, began in her home country of T&T. Ten years ago, she founded her non-profit organization Women of Elegance, but not before obtaining a degree in psychology.

“My mother always said to me, ‘People who are counselors and psychologists are listeners; you are a talker,’” Heerah recalls with a laugh.

She enrolled in psychology, but admitted she didn’t like the subject and eventually dropped out.

Watching her friends graduate hurt and was overcome with the feelings that come with disappointment and failure. Heerah may have struggled with her psychology degree, but mentally she was strong.

It was out of that struggle to find herself that she would launch Women of Elegance. At the age of 21, she held the first edition of the event at what was then the Jaffa at the Oval restaurant. Former CNC3 newsreader Golda Lee Bruce gave the keynote.

Heerah recalled, “I looked around the room and wondered, what were all these adults doing listening to what a 21-year-old had to say? After the event, everyone came up to me and asked, ‘When is the next event?’ I thought about just doing one event, but God saw an entire organization.”

Now at 31, Heerah’s non-profit has grown with her over the past decade. She would go on to found Pink Gems, producing a series of articles that put breast cancer survivors in the spotlight. Her third initiative was HUGS (Holding Up Girls Standards), where she traveled across T&T speaking to girls about holding themselves to high standards.

Building on the success of HUGS, she would launch HUBS (Holding Up Boys Strengths), which empowered boys to take charge. For the young woman who had once been disgusted by the withering away of her psychology degree, Heerah’s life had taken on meaning and purpose.

She recalls, “I actually had a moment where I thought maybe people would graduate this year, but I built a whole company. I started to realize that success looks different for different people and that perspective changes everything. That’s why we should never compare.”

Heerah’s rise would continue to garner national attention. She would be selected as part of the Youth Ministry’s 40 Under 40 National Influencer’s Mentorship Programme, which inspires young people across the country to live more positive lives. She would go on to complete an MBA at Anglia Ruskin University, where she graduated as the top student.

A journey of faith

After that academic achievement, she went on a mission trip through the Middle East and North Africa. It would change her life forever. Her experiences and encounters would shape her spiritually and use her cultural intelligence to work in a world of different beliefs and traditions.

Every conversation with Heerah brings up God. I hadn’t even asked her about her faith, and she had already mentioned it five times. “My dad always says, ‘Where is God on your list? Is God number one on your list?’ And he says, ‘God can’t even be number one on your list because He has to be the center of everything,’” she said.

Heerah wants more people to develop a personal relationship with God because she believes this will benefit them.

She added: “There is a need to, first of all, have a relationship with God. You have to see what that looks like. It’s not a cure for intimacy. It’s a lifestyle. Is it journaling? Is it listening to worship? Is it going to church? It’s a lifestyle that we have to have.”

Heerah is convinced that through God’s grace she has overcome the many setbacks in her life.

Faith comes first, but family doesn’t come far behind

The foundation of her faith in Jesus Christ was laid by her parents. Family comes second to her faith. She is the first of three children. If her last name sounds familiar, it is because her father is Commander Garvin Heerah, who was once the Executive Director of the National Operations Centre and is still the designated person for matters of national and transnational security in the country.

“I am my father. I am the female version of him,” Heerah chuckles. She speaks passionately about her father’s impact, saying, “My father has had a huge influence on my life. He is part of the reason I am who I am today. Coming from a military background, discipline in our family is very strong. There are a lot of things my friends were allowed to do that I wasn’t allowed to do. Even at this age, if there is a scene where a crime has been committed, we can’t go there for three months.”

Heerah describes her father as strong, resilient and loving, qualities she has inherited from him.

“He’s the perfect man in my eyes,” she says. While her father is a national figure, Heerah said her mother, Lorraine, was the opposite, but just as influential. She calls her “the engine room” of the family. Lorraine quit her job to ensure each of her children was cared for at home.

Heerah praised her mother for her selfless act and said, “People who work from eight to four can never compare to a full-time housewife because there is no clock when you are a housewife.”

For Heerah, her family has laid the foundation for the success she has had. It is a foundation built on faith, but also on discipline. From that foundation, Heerah now wants to help build, and in other cases rebuild, the lives of those she meets on her journey.

“It’s not about making a name for myself, it’s about making the name of Christ known,” she says.

As the world faces the challenges of the 21st century, Heerah takes on the task of training the next generation of leaders to solve these problems, equipping them with the new tools they need to live and thrive in an AI age that the world has only just entered.

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