Fay­ola Fras­er

At 32 years old, Ar­i­an­na Sookram of Chase Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, is known by many for her warm spir­it, gen­tle na­ture, and gen­uine care for oth­ers. A young woman of great faith and a qui­et in­ner strength, her sto­ry is one shaped by per­se­ver­ance and a deep sense of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to loved ones. In the cir­cum­stances of ad­ver­si­ty she has faced, her un­shake­able sense of self has made her ex­tra­or­di­nary, and those who know her recog­nise a woman who has qui­et­ly built a life root­ed in hard work, hu­mil­i­ty, and trust in God.

Sookram at­tend­ed Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary School, where she com­plet­ed her O’Lev­els. Dur­ing her school years, she felt com­pelled to seek sup­port, at­tend­ing evening class­es to strength­en sub­jects such as Math­e­mat­ics and Ac­counts, get­ting all the sup­port she need­ed to suc­ceed aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly. Like many young peo­ple from mod­est cir­cum­stances, con­tin­u­ing on to uni­ver­si­ty was not fi­nan­cial­ly pos­si­ble at the time. In­stead, Sookram be­gan ex­plor­ing the world of work, armed with a deep de­ter­mi­na­tion to gain re­al-life ex­pe­ri­ence and be able to help sup­port her house­hold.

By the time she was about 19 years old, Sookram had al­ready start­ed work­ing part-time in dif­fer­ent malls and re­tail spaces. These ear­ly jobs gave her prac­ti­cal skills and in­tro­duced her to cus­tomer ser­vice, an area where her nat­ur­al warmth and friend­li­ness quick­ly stood out. Around the same time, her par­ents sep­a­rat­ed, which meant she took on even greater re­spon­si­bil­i­ty at home. For Sookram, be­ing able to help and sup­port her moth­er be­came a pri­or­i­ty, and work was no longer just about ex­pe­ri­ence; it be­came a way to con­tribute to the fam­i­ly’s sta­bil­i­ty.

De­spite the pres­sures she faced at a young age to be­gin work­ing, Sookram nev­er de­vel­oped a dis­like for work. In fact, she “doesn’t like be­ing at home, and much rather be at work.” Over the years, she worked in sev­er­al cloth­ing stores and re­tail busi­ness­es, learn­ing dif­fer­ent as­pects of sales, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and cus­tomer care. She cred­its her vil­lage with sup­port­ing her pro­fes­sion­al jour­ney, re­mem­ber­ing the way that her un­cle played the role of a stead­fast sup­port­er, en­cour­ag­ing her to think about what she tru­ly en­joyed do­ing, and help­ing her re­al­ize that her “great­est strength was con­nect­ing with peo­ple.”

One of the most mem­o­rable chap­ters of her ca­reer be­gan when she start­ed work­ing at a cof­fee shop in her com­mu­ni­ty. For five years at Espres­so Ex­pres­sions Lim­it­ed in Ch­agua­nas, Sookram de­vel­oped a love for prepar­ing spe­cial­ty drinks, es­pe­cial­ly cof­fees and chillers. The cus­tomer-ori­ent­ed, fast-paced en­vi­ron­ment suit­ed her well. Serv­ing hun­dreds of cus­tomers each day, she be­came known by “her reg­u­lars” for her ef­fi­cien­cy, friend­ly con­ver­sa­tion, and the per­son­al at­ten­tion she gave to every per­son who ap­proached the counter.

Her pas­sion for cus­tomer ser­vice even­tu­al­ly led her to an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty when she joined a re­tail store in Ch­agua­nas, where she has worked for more than two years. Fur­ther­ing her pas­sion for cus­tomer ser­vice, Sookram re­flects on the way that the cus­tomers of­ten com­ment on her calm, re­spect­ful de­meanour and her will­ing­ness to help and sup­port pa­tient­ly. Many say she pro­vides “some of the best cus­tomer ser­vice they have ex­pe­ri­enced”, ap­pre­ci­at­ing the wel­com­ing at­mos­phere she helps cre­ate. For Sookram, treat­ing peo­ple with kind­ness and pa­tience is not sim­ply part of the job, it re­flects the val­ues she em­bod­ies and tries to live by every day.

Through­out her jour­ney, Sookram has faced mo­ments of dif­fi­cul­ty. In some work­places, she has felt mis­un­der­stood be­cause of her strong Chris­t­ian faith. As some­one who does not drink, par­ty, or smoke, and who open­ly prac­tices prayer and fast­ing, she some­times finds her­self stand­ing apart from and in con­tra­dic­tion to many of her peers. At times, this has led to crit­i­cism or harsh treat­ment. Yet Sookram be­lieves these ex­pe­ri­ences have strength­ened her rather than dis­cour­aged her. She cred­its her faith in God, along with en­cour­age­ment from her pas­tor and fam­i­ly mem­bers, for her strong roots.

For Ar­i­an­na Sookram, suc­cess is not mea­sured by ti­tles or recog­ni­tion, but by the abil­i­ty to serve oth­ers with kind­ness and re­main faith­ful through every sea­son of life.