[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust weeks after her father Marcus Foster’s death, Chelsea Foster received from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II a Commonwealth Points of Light award. In April she also won the Youth of the Year award at the 2018 National Youth Awards. While Chelsea started her volunteer work feeling she might sometimes be over-ambitious and over-confident, she now says she is extremely proud of her awards and it was all she could to hold back her screams of delight when first she was told the good news over the phone. “When I got the call from the representative of the British High Commission I thought she wanted to discuss possibly working with us for one of the projects implemented in Saint Lucia. Having been told otherwise, I was speechless. I kept thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it!’ ”
Unbeknown to Chelsea, the British High Commission had been monitoring Chelsea’s work as a volunteer and had nominated her for the award. The Queen then selected her from the list of nominations. But, for Chelsea, the true achievement is the creation of her organisation, Girls of a Feather, a group designed to assist with the personal development of young women and girls.
“The idea popped up right after graduating from Sir Arthur Lewis Community College around 2012,” Chelsea said during a STAR interview. Girls of a Feather kicked off with the help of her sisters, family, friends and her mother, Andra Gokool-Foster, who offered all her resources without being able to figure out why this project meant so much to Chelsea. “I’m happy she can now understand and I’m grateful for how considerate she and her staff have been,” said Chelsea.
Just how Girls of a Feather managed to make such an impact is largely because of Chelsea’s hard work, especially in the early stages. Chelsea giggles a lot. She said she wishes she was still eighteen, but it’s her magnetic affability that may be her biggest asset.
“I knew that I had to put in a lot of work to fit us into spaces where our name would be recognized,” she said. “Whether it was at training sessions or through partnership opportunities, I stuck my head into those circles to meet the right people to help further the growth and mission of the organisation. Over the past two years our technical training has spanned from operations and management, advocacy, youth development and volunteer preparation which allows us to continue improving our understanding of the work we do.”
Chelsea takes obvious pride in the results from the pilot of Girls of a Feather’s flagship programme, Girls With Goals, which pairs female leaders with students to mentor their development academically, personally and socially, and to track the progress along the way. The programme is intended to run for nine months at a time, as did the pilot.
Girls of a Feather hosts camps and campaigns, including the most recent #NoMoreBodyShaming which focuses on encouraging girls to embrace with confidence their body types and imperfections.
Chelsea said: “Our next event will take place on Human Rights Day, December 10. It will be a 50 More Youth Conference partnered with I Am A Girl Barbados and endorsed by the US Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, for secondary school students in Saint Lucia. The conference aims to engage boys and girls in casting a positive vision for themselves and their country over the next fifty years.”
But these are not the only goals that the ambitious 25-year-old wishes to accomplish. She’s looking forward to a matured Girls of a Feather organisation that will help bridge the gap between government organisations and disadvantaged youth. “We’re currently liaising with the United Nations University, Gender Equality Studies and Training Program’s project manager to have a few of the team members register for the Teaching Gender to Youth diploma within the next year. Our programme coordinator, Annie Auguste, also received a scholarship this year from the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) to pursue an online NGO Professional Management Certificate course on behalf of the group.”
There are two chapters of Girls of a Feather: at Castries Comprehensive Secondary School and at St. Joseph’s Convent, but Chelsea wants to ensure “no girl is left behind”. She also knows that her late father would have been particularly proud of her achievements. “Our father always encouraged in me and my siblings our individualism and our quest to be passionate about what we do.”
