Secondary schools supporters association appoints two high profile patrons

The Dominica Secondary Schools Supporters Association (DASSSA) is delighted to announce the confirmation of Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu DBE CBE FRCN FQNI PhD & Mr Adam Partridge as their first ever Patrons.

DASSSA is a UK based charity which provides financial assistance to secondary schools and students in Dominica. Some of the students and schools which have benefited recently include the Achievement Learning Centre, The Pierre Charles Secondary School in Grand Bay, St Mary’s Academy, and with promise of assistance to the Orion Academy now under consideration.

DASSSA is aiming to grow awareness of its activities in an effort to raise greater funds and in so doing make a greater
contribution to its causes. Having these two highly talented and respected professionals serve as DASSSA
Patrons is a tremendous coup for our small but respected charity.

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu is the highly regarded author of “Mixed Blessings from A Cambridge Union” having been honoured with a CBE by HRH the Prince of Wales in 2001, followed by her Investiture as a Dame in 2017 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth has put a substantial amount of her life into her work as a nurse, health visitor and tutor working with black and minority ethnic communities in London. ‘People from diverse cultures are not always valued and still sometimes just seen as problems,’ she says.

In 1979, she helped to establish in Brent the first nurse-led UK Sickle & Thalassaemia Screening and Counselling Centre. In 1988 she was awarded a PhD from the Institute of Education, University College London (UCL). From 1990-1997 she worked at the Institute of Child Health, UCL as a Lecturer then Senior Lecturer in Community Genetic Counselling. She has written extensively and is a co-author with Professor Karl Atkin of the book ‘The Politics of Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia’ published in 2001 by the Open University Press.

Adam Partridge is one of the UK’s best-known auctioneers and valuers of Antiques and Fine Art. For many years he has appeared as an antiques expert and auctioneer on numerous antiques television programmes including BBC’s Flog It!, Bargain Hunt, Dickinson’s Real Deal and Cash In the Attic.

He has an emotional connection with Dominica, visiting the Island often, sometimes two to three times a year. Following Hurricane Maria, Adam was kind enough to open his home in Dominica to international aid workers.