Under the theme "Enabling Sustainable Futures: Be the One to Make the Change, "Republic Bank on Wednesday 25th January, unveiled its 2023 Power to Make a Difference (PMAD) partners within the East Caribbean Territories. PMAD is Republic Bank’s overarching social investment program, built on the knowledge that the bank has the power to make a difference by empowering others to learn, help, care, and succeed. It is done through collaboration with advocacy groups in the pursuit of building successful and sustainable societies.
The in-person event was held in St. Kitts, with token handovers occurring last week in the other territories of Anguilla, Dominica, St. Maarten, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.Janelle Bernard, general manager of the legal department and corporate secretary of Republic Bank (EC) Ltd Group and PMAD Executive Champion, delivered welcome remarks following the pre-event cocktail. This was followed by a video presentation of Republic Bank EC’s corporate social responsibility journey, a message from the PMAD Advisory Council, and a feature address by Republic Bank EC's Managing Director, Michelle Palmer. In explaining the introduction of the program to the East Caribbean islands and the process of partner selection, PMAD Advisory Council member Pierre Liburd explained that the bank recognized the need to quickly augment its institutional knowledge of the region’s diverse community development ecosystems and therefore constituted an External Advisory Council comprising persons from the various islands with decades of experience in grant writing, project implementation, community service, and local knowledge and expertise. The highlight of the event was the announcement of the sixteen (16) partners who will be walking hand in hand with Republic Bank to spearhead social transformation in our East Caribbean territories. Two partners were selected in Anguilla: The Rotary Club of Anguilla, whose initiative is to provide continued public awareness and psychosocial support for cancer victims in Anguilla. Likewise in Dominica, two partners were selected, the first being the West Dominica Children’s Federation Inc., which gives young boys in grades 3-6 career counseling, environmental awareness, traditional cultural practices, basic life skills, and health and wellness education, and the second being the Rotary Club of Portsmouth, whose project will not only save the bees but give young women the opportunity to undertake sustainable beekeeping. On the island of St. Maarten, The K1 Britannia Foundation, whose program provides workforce entry-level youth with access to a Training and Social Development Program, was selected as a PMAD partner, in addition to the Freegan Food Foundation. Four PMAD partners were chosen for Saint Lucia: the St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association, the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities, Inc., and the Daren Sammy Foundation. For the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three PMAD partners are involved: The Rotary Club of St. Vincent, St. Martin’s Secondary School, and the Rotaract Club of Kingstown. Managing Director Michelle Palmer, in applauding the new partners, captured the spirit of PMAD, stating, "Republic Bank wants to invite the whole Caribbean region to bear witness to the power of one regional thrust by one corporate entity, supporting a diverse array of changemakers on the ground." Please follow closely the progress of our "Power to Make a Difference" partners in your respective islands as they hasten our achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. We look forward to this momentum continuing into the following year with even more activists, NGOs, and community leaders applying for the next cycle of Republic Bank’s Power to Make a Difference. "Our Bank has demonstrated our commitment to this region, and now we are confident that it is sufficient to prove to even the most skeptical that anyone, from even the humblest beginnings, can be the one to make the change."
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