Date Posted: November 03, 2008.
Bridgetown, Barbados – Haiti, The Bahamas, the Turks and
Caicos Islands and Jamaica have received over US$150,000 for
disaster relief following the passage of several severe
weather systems in recent months, and the significant
recovery efforts needed to return these countries to a
normal state.
Comtrust Director Dawne Williams hands over cheque for
BDS$50,000 to Director General of the Barbados Red Cross
Society Edmond Bradshaw.
Jamaica will be allocating the funds to assist with
repairs to schools, senior citizens’ and children’s homes
and affected farming communities. Funds for Turks and Caicos
Islands will be administered by the National Disaster Relief
Fund and the Red Cross, while the National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) will oversee funds to assist with
the rebuilding of Morton Salt located on Great Inagua.
The Bank through its charity, the FirstCaribbean
International Comtrust Foundation Limited recently teamed up
with the Barbados Red Cross Society to assist with the Haiti
Hurricane Appeal. The Bank donated US$25,000 to Haiti to
assist with general recovery efforts.
During a special presentation to the Red Cross, Comtrust
Director Dawne Williams described the situation in Haiti as
heartbreaking, “This donation is therefore from the hearts
of all of us at FirstCaribbean”. Dawne also observed that in
its six years of operation, FirstCaribbean has made disaster
relief one of the main priorities of its social
responsibility agenda. “The Comtrust budgets annually for
hurricane relief, and even though Haiti lies outside of the
geographic area covered by FirstCaribbean, we decided that
we could not ignore the situation there. They are our
Caribbean brothers and sisters and we see this as no better
way of fulfilling our responsibility to our Caribbean
communities”.
Director General of the local chapter of the Red Cross,
Edmond Bradshaw, noted that the first shipment of basic
materials such as tarpaulins had already arrived in Haiti.
He explained that cash donations were preferred in light of
the difficulty of shipping items from port to port which, in
some cases, did not reach the destination intended.
The Barbados Red Cross Society was founded in 1960 as part
of the British Red Cross in 1966. The Red Cross is one of
the leading agencies engaged in disaster response with over
500 volunteers locally.
The FirstCaribbean Comtrust Foundation administers the
bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, and is
administered by a seven member Board of Trustees which is
currently chaired by the bank’s Managing Director for The
Bahamas, Sharon Brown.
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