Ms. Dona Da Costa Martinez​

Dona, holder of an Executive Master’s in Business Administration from the Institute of Business, UWI St. Augustine, began her work in sexual and reproductive health 35 years ago, at the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago. In her formative years she was responsible for research, planning and evaluation and development of programmes to achieve the Association’s mission. In 1999 she was appointed Executive Director.

 

Under her stewardship, De Living Room – a Youth Centre dedicated to serving young persons under 25 years of age was born – a vision of the two Executive Directors prior to her, and under whom she trained. She also led the expansion of the Association’s work in other areas with a focus on integrating sexual rights in all its projects. This included expansion of its advocacy work in sexual and reproductive health and rights including abortion and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) rights, comprehensive sexuality education, gender-based violence, HIV prevention. She has served on several committees at the national level including the National AIDS Coordinating Committee; Technical Working Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health of the Ministry of Health; the Steering Committee on Population and Development under the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development.

 

She is Co-Chair of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) - a regional coalition of community leaders and non-governmental agencies providing services directly to and on behalf of Caribbean populations who are especially vulnerable to HIV infection; Currently she serves as the chair of the Trinidad and Tobago NCD Alliance which consists of nine

founding member Associations.