Joyce De Souza along with Member of Parliament Barry Gardiner.
CANACONA
A lawyer from Goa was on Thursday elected as the CLP Women’s Officer in the Labour Party of Brent West Zone in London.
According to sources in the UK, Joyce De Souza was elected as the CLP Women Officer for Brent West Parliamentary Constituency of the Labour Party (CLP), a part of the Borough of Brent.
Incidentally, De Souza’s husband Elvis Fernandes, a former Congress block president of Canacona Constituency, was also elected as delegate of the CLP Brent West on the same day.
Elvis and Joyce migrated to the UK about 5 years ago and both are active in social work and reach out to different communities, including the Goan community in London.
Joyce is believed to be the first woman from Goan Community ever to be elected as CLP Women’s Officer in the Borough of Brent, London. Incidentally, De Souza got elected within one year of joining the Labour Party.
When contacted over the phone, Joyce said, “Canacona and the people of Canacona and Goa shall always be close to my heart.”
Joyce was a practising lawyer in Canacona and used to organise court programmes creating legal awareness on women-related issues like dowry, Save Girl Child, female infanticide, divorce, alimony, rape, sexual assault at work- places, domestic abuse, etc.
As an elected CLP Women’s Officer, Joyce will be liaising with the local police officers with issues relating to women like domestic violence, misogyny, homophobia, etc.
She will also take the responsibility of creating awareness among women of the help available to them and the various ways of approaches they could take to resolve their issues.
Joyce will also organise programmes to engage women with different backgrounds and diverse communities with the help of the CLP Brent West.
