International Womens Day this year is being observed at a very challenging time, not only for women, but also for the entire world.
Speaking during a brief ceremony, the bank’s country head, Ladesa James-Williams noted that Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on our children, both mentally and physically through the disruption of our education system.
“The ramifications on our youth will be far reaching and as such we need to rally around our schools, teachers and principals as much as we can as they transition back to classroom instruction. With this in mind for 2021 CIBC FirstCaribbean is committed to doing its part and will focus on youth and education.”
She added, “We would like on this International Womens Day to honour our 11 female secondary school principals through this donation and thank and congratulate them for their sterling efforts. So for International Womens Day, we worked with the Ministry of Education to identify the female principals of secondary schools and we have donated $1,000 to each of them, to use for their school.”
Minister of Education, Sports and the Creative Industries, Hon. Darry Matthew and the Principal of the Antigua Girls High School and Sir Novelle Richards Academy, Mrs. Theoline Croft and Ms. Listine Bradshaw, accepted the $11,000 cheque, which will be shared among the 11 principals.
Minister Matthew thanked the bank for its philanthropic support for education in Antigua and Barbuda.
“While the world has been consumed with the Covid-19 pandemic, education and the negative effects on education have largely gone unnoticed. So this donation by CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank is timely and greatly appreciated”, he said.
CIBC FirstCaribbean recently donated approximately $20,000 to support literacy programmes at Clare Hall Secondary and Greenbay Primary Schools.
On IWD, female staff of the bank will wear purple and will be provided with a special packaged breakfast and IWD facemasks.
International Womens Day is March 8, 2021. Theme: ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.’