Roselyn Cassell-Sealy has been the name
synonymous with Small Business and Credit Union for the past 12 years on
Montserrat.Roselyn Cassell-Sealy
A PROFILE OF A LIFE OF SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP
Roselyn Cassell-Sealy has been the name
synonymous with Small Business and Credit Union for the past 12 years on
Montserrat.
While it is true that she has been instrumental in the development of the Credit Union and the National Development Foundation her life of service, community development and leadership are known throughout the Caribbean and has gone beyond to the international arena.
Mrs. Cassell-Sealy holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics and a Masters in Accounting.
Her first taste of working with the development process was her term of employment with the DFMC in 1976. And even as far back as then her capacity to work with twin organisations was demonstrated as she ably acted as the Accountant of the DFMC and the MIEL. She participated in the development the Montserrat Sea Island Cotton Company and served a term of employment with the company as the Accountant.
And when she was called to serve as Executive Director of the NDF and the Credit Union Mrs. Cassell-Sealy was unable to immediately remove her service from the Montserrat Sea Island Cotton Company, so for a period she divided her work day between the Credit Union, the NDF and the Montserrat Sea Island Cotton Company.
This commitment and dedication of service to the community and people of Montserrat must have been the reason for her being declared "Woman of the Year" by the now defunct newspaper, The Times, under the Editorship of J.D. Fenton.
But Mrs. Cassell-Sealy’s employment history also extends beyond the shores of Montserrat. She worked as an In-charge Accountant for the firm of auditors then called Peat Marwick in Barbados and also as Trainee Accountant at the Dominica Electricity Company. She even did a short stint with the Montserrat Electricity Company after returning from Dominica.
The concept of the twinning of Credit Unions and business development has been such a successful one that Mrs. Cassell-Sealy was invited to the USA by a women’s community group led by the President of the Buffalo Chapter of Partners to explain how such an arrangement might be utilised by them.
Mrs. Cassell-Sealy led the development of the Leeward Island Managers Association and is the sitting Treasurer. She also represented the Executive Directors of the NDFs in the OECS on the Board of the East Caribbean Organisation of Development Foundations.
She has served on the Board of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions for the past eight years and has been the Secretary to the Board for 3 years, the Treasurer for 3 years and is now the sitting Vice President.
She represented the Confederation at international meetings and it was at such a meeting in Ireland in the height of the volcanic activity that she was able to raise over EC$300,000 for the local Credit Union.
Her links with the international Credit Union movement have also allowed her to raise Canadian $150,000 grant funds during the peak of the volcanic activity to aid some 20 fishermen with boats, engines, wire and nets, 44 small business persons with building, stock and equipment, and farmers and the residents of Davy Hill with fencing wire, seeds, fertilisers and farming tools.
Her high regional profile in the Caribbean Credit Union movement also helped to raise a further EC$200,000 regionally and allowed food items and toiletries to be collected in vast amounts by the regional Credit Union movement to deliver care packages all over Montserrat during the most uncertain days of the volcanic crisis.
Mrs. Cassell-Sealy is also the sitting Leeward Island representative on the Project Management Committee of the CIDA-funded EC$26-million Caribbean Human Resource Development Program for Economic Competitiveness.
Her position and profile in the regional small business community have also caused her to be chosen to attend a six-week course in Italy to get a first hand view of their national Small Business Programs and activity.
Her national public life of service is no less distinguished.
She was the President of the local Chapter of Partners of the Americas and participated in their international fellowship exercise, which took her to Chile, Guatemala, Brazil and the United States.
Mrs. Cassell-Sealy has served on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, Radio Antilles, Montserrat Family Life Services and the Tourist Board. She is a member of the local chapter of the Caribbean Institute of Banking.
She served as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, the Committee for Fiscal Incentives, and the National Consultative Committee.
Her community development service is given as a member of the Rotary Club of Montserrat, the Women’s Professional Group and as a facilitator for the Davy Hill Action Group.
Mrs. Cassell-Sealy's life of service to Montserrat is unrivalled. As a representative she will continue to give of herself to the development of Montserrat and influence policy and strategies that can benefit us all.
The preceding is a paid political notice, it does not represent an endorsement by The Montserrat Reporter.