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The Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora Associations Network (TTDAN) is a network of Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora Associations throughout the United States, whose mission is to mobilize member organizations to develop and implement programs and initiatives that promote the well-being, diversity, creativity and upliftment of nationals of Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Since its formation in 2018, TTDAN has operated as an umbrella organization of collaborating Trinidad and Tobago professional, cultural and charitable organizations in addition to secondary school alumni associations, based primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, at this time.  The existing membership has hosted several events within the Baltimore-Washington area.  Most recently TTDAN has been working with Trinidad and Tobago stakeholders to assist with mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on the country’s education system. 

 

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BACKGROUND​

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Upon becoming Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United States of America (USA) in 2016, His Excellency Brigadier General (Ret’d.) Anthony W.J. Phillips-Spencer gave strategic attention to engaging members of the Trinidad and Tobago diaspora community across the USA. In his pursuit of this mandated public policy priority of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, he met with our diaspora through his visits to events hosted by the Trinidad & Tobago organizations and by hosting annual Christmas celebrations at the Ambassador’s Residence in 2016 and 2017.

 

The growth in attendance at those events resulted in a collaboration of the Trinidad and Tobago Embassy and the diaspora, by which the annual Christmas celebration has since evolved into an annual fundraising event, beginning in 2018 as a humanitarian aid response to the devastating floods of October 2018 in Trinidad and Tobago. That 2018 Christmas celebration of Trini culture and camaraderie was not only a fundraising success. It provided the galvanizing platform for organizing and mobilizing an interdependent, influential, integrated and institutionalized environment for collaboration among the members of the Trinidad and Tobago diaspora communities in the USA, and fostered the creation of the Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora Associations Network (TTDAN).

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