Georgetown: Distinguished Guyanese Magda Pollard died on Thursday. She received two of the country’s highest national awards – the Cacique Crown of Honour and the Arrow of Achievement.
Magda Pollard was born at Buxton, East Coast Demerara, in 1931, to parents Fitzgerald and Muriel Pollard. Both her parents were teachers, with her father being the head teacher of the Buxton Congregational School.
In 1941, she enrolled at Bishops’, the same year the family moved into a Victorian style house on what is now Bourda street. Her tenure at Bishops’ would prepare her for the future.
Music, drama, religion, and community service were all part of the life at Bishops’.
She joined the legendary Woodside Choir and participated in the first British Guiana Music Festival, which was held in 1952.
She wrote the Oxford and Cambridge Exams in 5th form and the London Higher School Certificate offered by the University of London, which gave exemption into university.
When she left school in 1950, Pollard followed in the footsteps of her parents and became a teacher, having the status first of Untrained Teacher at the Broad Street (now Dolphin) Government School.
After four years of teaching, with the financial backing of her parents, she went off to Scotland to attend the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, to receive training as a Grade 1 Teacher.
The foundation she received at Bishops’ prepared her for college. After college, she returned to Guyana and started out back in the public education system. Shortly thereafter, she took up a post at the Carnegie School of Home Economics and was in 1962 appointed Principal and had the task of shaping the direction of the institution which was created to prepare girls to learn all the skills and attitudes essential for a good home, family and community life.
The first edition of the cookbook “What’s Cooking in Guyana” was initiated by Pollard. In 1971, under her stewardship, a separate catering section was created to give more specialized training in food preparation and service.
After 16 years at the Carnegie School of Home Economics, Pollard was interviewed by the CARICOM Secretariat to work on a regional food and nutrition project.
At that time the women’s movement was at its peak. The United Nations had researched the situation of women and found that there were serious inequalities and that the status of women needed to be improved in a variety of ways.
Recommendations were used as the basis for a conference in 1975 in Mexico that all governments were invited to. There, priority areas were identified to improve status of women and member states agreed to so function.
At the conference, the UN designated 1976-1985 the decade of women with the themes of equality, development and peace, and sub-themes of education, health and employment. Another goal was to prepare the CEDAW, referred to at the outset.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, which was funding the food and nutrition project Pollard was working on, gave the CARICOM Secretariat the task of finding out whether CARICOM governments should engage in this programme for the welfare of women. The NGO community was actively supporting the move towards the elimination of discrimination against women and was lobbying the Secretariat to put a desk in place with which they could go through.
As a result, in 1980 the Secretariat received funding for the post of Women’s Affairs Officer. Pollard came into the picture.
From there, a series of tasks were launched with each government having its own programme. There was also a regional programme, which was Pollard’s responsibility to implement.
She also served on the Women and Gender Equality Commission. She previously served as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women and Chairperson of the National Task Force on Domestic Violence.
Pollard is the recipient of numerous awards in Guyana and abroad for her work in advocating for women’s rights and her unswerving and distinguished contribution to the success of the Carnegie School of Home Economics. She has also received a special award from the Caribbean Association of Home Economists, of which she was a founding member.
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