For more than 15 years, Sherron Harford has immersed herself in the fight against domestic violence in Trinidad and Tobago. Her work with shelters, her role in key organisations such as the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, The Shelter, and the Alliance for State Action to End Gender-Based Violence, and her advocacy have helped support countless survivors.
But at a certain point, Harford began asking a deeper question: Do we continue to provide the plaster for the cut—or do we find ways to prevent the cut in the first place? This shift in thinking prompted her to take a bold new direction.
Her initial journey into advocacy didn’t begin with a strategic plan—it began through a friend. A call for help with fundraising for a local NGO, The Shelter, turned into years of dedicated service, culminating in her role on the board.
Yet, over time, Harford realised that as impactful as shelters were, they were only a response—never a solution. “There will never be enough shelters,” she says plainly, “not until we address the root causes of domestic violence.” This led her to seek other avenues to make an impact in the lives of women and girls in T&T.
With this epiphany, Harford turned her attention toward prevention, particularly in the lives of young girls. Armed with the conviction that girls need to be empowered early, she is an advocate for changing the narrative surrounding girls from a very young age, before violence becomes normalised, and before they believe they are less than.
Although existing social programmes for boys were beginning to show promise, there was a glaring gap in initiatives designed specifically for girls. A doting grandmother, or “Grinny” of 20 grandchildren, Harford felt her efforts could focus on supporting her granddaughter’s development in sports.
Her grandson and granddaughter joined Pro Series, a football club founded by Paul Decle and Happy Hall, a premier organiser for football programmes in T&T, with an interest in developing and expanding the sport. Watching her granddaughter thrive opened Harford’s eyes to a powerful avenue for change: sport as a tool for empowering girls.
Through her son and daughter-in-law, who are part of the leadership body of Pro Series, Harford became more involved in the football club, and for her, the mission became clearer. Within the context of the club and its mission, Pro Series created a strong community in which Harford was happy to take a supporting role, to build young girls into women, equipped with essential life skills to stand up for themselves.
The club does not only focus on sport, but on girls supporting girls, understanding their worth, and dreaming bigger. What became evident was the lack of investment in and support for female sports, and the club pursued pathways such as preparing personal profiles for the girls—documents that could be shared with universities, football clubs, and even FIFA.
Understanding the importance of confidence-building and communication skills, they brought in a journalist to coach the girls on media interviews.
These initiatives had a ripple effect, boosting the girls’ confidence in themselves and their ability to pursue sports professionally.
The programme’s holistic model includes everything from nutrition to academic support to media training—designed to raise strong, self-aware young women. Recalling a quote she heard from a dear friend, Harford says “domestic violence is complicated, so it therefore requires a complicated solution.”
For those who are unable to form linkages between girls’ development in sport and reduction in domestic violence, she identifies sport as the entry point, but with a much broader goal: to raise a generation of girls who understand their value, stand by each other, and are equipped to thrive, making them less vulnerable to male manipulation.
Positive about this preventative approach, Harford is, however, still candid about this fight against domestic violence being an uphill battle. In T&T, she said, funding for sports still heavily favours boys. Girls are often treated as afterthoughts, if acknowledged at all. But what is even more troubling to her is how girls are sometimes treated in the home or in schools.
“We don’t teach girls to support one another, and they can even be demeaned, discouraged, or even sexualised,” she says. “We teach them that their value lies in how much favour they can earn—often by being sexually available.”
Reversing that mindset requires a cultural shift, beginning with how we educate and discipline our children.
Harford believes that the first line of influence lies with teachers and parents. How we talk to children, both boys and girls, how we handle discipline, how we address bullying and academic struggles—all of this shapes their self-image.
Focused specifically on girls’ development, she emphasises, “You don’t call a girl stupid or crazy, but instead teach her with dignity. You intervene when she’s bullied. You show her that her first support system should be other girls.”
In a context where girls are often pitted against each other, she believes that community building is at the heart of girls’ development. Harford’s strategy isn’t idealism—it’s an understanding she has come to, rooted in years of hard-earned experience.
One of Harford’s dreams is to create programmes that not only offer stability, but incorporate ways to make women independent and self-sufficient, even after suffering instances of domestic abuse. For example, she wishes that instead of the need for shelters, there could be secure spaces, such as tea houses—a warm, welcoming space where women can work, gain job skills, and grow self-sufficiency.
“When we talk about violence, we have to think about safety,” she says. And for Harford, safety requires a multi-institutional approach that incorporates not only the legal frameworks that are built to support women, but also a concerted effort to allow for implementation.
For example, the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education have a mandate to protect girls, educate boys and girls on respect, and teach women their rights.
Fifteen years in the trenches of advocacy have taught Harford that impact and change will be achieved through intention and community.
It must come from the community—from parents making strides like the mother of Samantha Isaacs (represented by Douglas Mendes, SC), who took the TTPS to court, faced with the death of her daughter from domestic violence, which created waves of advocacy throughout the nation.
From coaches like Paul Decle, who have created structures to empower girls, from volunteers, teachers, and everyday citizens who believe in doing more.
“We all have a role to play,” Harford says, and the role is to build the next generation of young women raised with worth, imagining unique and creative solutions to this societal scourge, preventing the roots of domestic violence from taking hold.