Vindra Amar is well groomed, her skin flawless, hair, makeup, clothes and jewellery elegantly understated. This businesswoman, attorney and notary public is also co-owner of Brava International, producers of local Twist juices, with her husband, Rawlins. Over the past 16 years she has developed her own special style and acumen to become an astute businesswoman. “My philosophy of life is to be the change you wish to see in the world,” she says, quoting Mahatma Ghandi. Nice to say; hard to live by. But if anyone embodies the idea, it would be Amar. She’s careful to give due credit to her family of strong values and high achievers and to her Alma Mater, Naparima Girls, where she was a Vice House Captain and represented her school at four Music Festivals. While at the University of West Indies (UWI) she sang with a pop group, Cruze. “Then I developed nodules on my vocal cords,” she says with a trace of regret, “and can’t sing as much anymore.”
After being admitted to the bar in 1988, she spent two years working with the Organisation of American States as a Human Rights Officer and Regional Co-ordinator in Nicaragua. As an independent Elections Observer, she has overseen elections in hotspots like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Suriname. In Nicaragua, she was assigned to a remote forest area as camp administrator, the only senior female civilian among 100 UN military officers, to handle the repatriation of Contras from border countries, to re-integrate them into their communities, and witnessed the destruction of thousands of AK-47s and other heavy weapons during the disarmament. Among of the highlights of her years in Latin America were the meetings she held with Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua, and spending a day with former US President Jimmy Carter, who was there to witness for the first democratic election in the history of Nicaragua.
“I was a young chick then,” she laughs, and with the nonchalance of youth didn’t seem daunted by the dangers and inconveniences she faced every day, from hacking her way through the jungle and doing without sanitary facilities, to sleeping in a hammock. “I lived in the Amerindian communities,” she reminisces. “I was stationed in the Mosquito coast for a year and a half.” Her fluency in Spanish and ability to communicate in a few tribal dialects, as well as her straight dark hair and sapodilla skin, made acceptance easy in the region. But life was not easy. “I’ve seen abject poverty and hardship.” She even got malaria, and with communications almost non-existent, was unable to speak with her family for several weeks at a time. In July 1990, she was flagged down by a Creole villager, who informed her that there’d been a coup in her home country. She didn’t believe him. After all the violence and human rights abuses she’d seen, there was no way any such thing could have taken place in sweet, peaceful Trinidad.
During her time in Latin America, she worked closely with groups like Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross. “It made me realise that I really love the humanitarian field.” When she returned to Trinidad in 1991 and took up her legal and business career, she became active in the T&T Red Cross and the Rotary Club. Having just relinquished the position of President of the local Red Cross, she is now Chair of the organising committee for the 2012 Children’s Carnival. While most people are busy making Christmas plans, the Red Cross is focusing on alleviating the effects of the recent flooding, and trying to put proactive measures in place to assist communities in disaster prevention.
As an attorney, she does her own personal form of legal aid with her employees, family and friends. “I consider myself a pro-bono lawyer; it’s my way of continuing to help others.” She helped draft the revised constitution of the local Red Cross, and during her term as President focused on professionalising the structure of the organisation, with emphasis on transparency and integrity. She was recently appointed to the Compliance and Mediation Committee of the International Federation of the Red Cross, based in Geneva. How can people help the Red Cross in their efforts? “We need volunteers at all levels including professionals: Finance, Marketing, Communications, etc. People are kind and want to help. I’ve hardly ever asked for something and been turned down.”
Successful at business, outstanding career and humanitarian work, and devoted wife, daughter, sister and friend – how does she do it ? “I work hard at keeping a balanced approach to life – I believe that if you think you can do a thing or not, you are correct. So I try to stay positive and embrace life.”
