As we approach this holiday season, I want to reach out to every home, every family and every heart across our beloved island. This year has not been easy. We have faced challenges that have tested our strength, patience and resilience.
And this holiday season is a hard one for many of us, as it does not feel like a season of joy. It feels heavy. It feels quiet. It feels like another reminder of how much has been lost and how little has changed for our people.
To all the adults of Dominica, I write this to you during this holiday season, not from a place of comfort, but from the same reality that many of us are living every single day. I am not watching you struggle from the outside. My family and I are also living it. I wake up every day as a mom, a wife, and a Dominican with the same worries, face the same uncertainty, and I carry the same weight that so many of our families across our Dominica are carrying, not just today, but every day.
The Christmas holidays in Dominica used to mean something here. It used to bring out bright Christmas lights, laughter, music and a feeling that even if life was hard, we were moving forward together. Today, for too many families, Christmas brings stress, fear and literally silent tears.
While a small group of privileged individuals here in Dominica receive their “free Christmas Ham,” a much larger number of Dominicans will be left to struggle quietly, and many will go without this Christmas. Many will pretend in public that they are fine when they are not. That pain is real, and it is widespread; it is a crisis.
Take an honest look around our country. The bright Christmas lights are gone. The festive spirit has faded. The Botanical Gardens, once filled with joy and pride during this time of year, now stand as a shell of a reminder of what Dominica used to feel like. This is not because our people have changed. It is because this government has become disconnected from reality and is running out of money.
- I am not a lawyer pretending to understand and be living hardship
- I am not a party leader travelling the world looking for job opportunity, while my people stay behind.
- I am not insulated from the consequences of bad governance.
- I am here. I am living it. And that is why I speak and feel the way I do!
To all the young people of Dominica: My heart truly aches for you. You have literally grown up with only this government, watching your parents struggle year after year. You know nothing else. Christmas is not a joyful memory for you; it is just another reminder of limitation. You look towards your future and see very little to be excited about, and you are forced to ask yourself whether leaving your home is the only way to survive. That is the cruel position that Roosevelt Skerrit and his Dominica Labour Party government have placed an entire generation in.
To my younger children of Dominica: You deserve better than this. You deserve laughter, celebration and hope, not disappointment. I will not allow you to grow up with the same dark future that sits before your older siblings and family. This is not the Dominica we are supposed to be. And this pain should not be normalized. It should not be accepted. It should not be explained away.
I promise you this: I will never pretend that everything is fine when it is not. I will never turn my back on the reality my people are living. And I will never stop fighting or speaking out until our country and Christmas are once again a time of joy, not just for the selected few, but for everyone!
And I know that many of you will just simply try to make it through this holiday the best you can, with what you have. There are no grand celebrations planned in many homes. No abundance. Just endurance, love and the hope that tomorrow morning comes gently.
I ask you today to hold on, just through tomorrow, one day at a time. Do what you can. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your children. And if all you can offer is your presence, that is enough.
Like many of you, our family will sit down tomorrow and eat the same food we have eaten all year. There will be no special meal, no extra, no excess, just what we have, shared. And like many families across Dominica, we were not given a “Free Christmas Ham.”
Not because we did not need it, but because we refused to publicly support a government that has turned food into a weapon against its own people.
- No parent should ever have to choose between feeding their family and surrendering their dignity.
- No family should ever be made to feel grateful for crumbs while their future is stolen.
This is not how a government and a country should treat their people.
Still, the holiday season will pass. And I promise you this, it will get better. Not because of charity. Not because of handouts. But because change is coming and it will be built on dignity, fairness and respect for every Dominican.
- Tonight, if you are tired, rest.
- If you are hurting, know you are not alone.
- If you feel forgotten, you are not.
We will endure this Christmas together. And we will rebuild a Dominica where no one has to beg, pretend, or suffer in silence ever again.
May this season be gentle with you. And may hope stay alive in your heart. And do not let this holiday season be defined by the hardships we face, but by the hope we carry and the future we dare to build. Together, we can dream bigger, support each other stronger and create the Dominica we all deserve, a country where every person has the chance to thrive, to be heard and to belong.
From my family to yours, may your hearts be filled with peace, your homes with laughter and your spirits with renewed hope for the year ahead. Remember, even in our hardest times, brighter days are coming, and we will face them together. With truth and solidarity, a blessed holiday season to you and your entire family.
