Debra King, Director of Corporate Communications, CIBC FirstCaribbean presenting CEO of SickKids Foundation Ted Garrard with the pens used in the signing ceremony. Looking on is SickKids Fellow Dr. Chantelle Browne-Farmer (back left) Bonnie Fleming-Caro (partly hidden), Associate Chief of Nursing & Inter-professional Education at SickKids (centre) and Dr. Upton Allen, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at SickKids. Photo: Provided

CEO of SickKids Foundation Ted Garrard and Debra King, Director of Corporate Communications, CIBC FirstCaribbean sign the new MOU witnessed by SickKids Fellow Dr. Chantelle Browne-Farmer (back left) Bonnie Fleming-Carol, Associate Chief of Nursing & Inter-professional Education at SickKids (centre) and Dr. Upton Allen, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at SickKids. Photo: Provided

"The regional bank signed another Memorandum of Understanding with SickKids Foundation of Canada, which underwrites the regional effort to provide support for additional specialised nurse training, as well as for research and advocacy over a five-year period," CIBC FirstCaribbean noted in a release today, September 28, 2019. 

In 2013, with the support of SickKids Foundation, the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative (SCI), a not-for-profit partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI), Ministries of Health, hospitals and institutions in six Caribbean countries, and the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, was established. This partnership focuses on building sustainable local capacity to diagnose, treat, and manage paediatric cancers and blood disorders.

Second Pledge 

The bank noted that it joined the effort, pledging USD$1 million over a seven-year period (2014 – 2020) through its charitable arm, FirstCaribbean International ComTrust Foundation.

Chief Executive Officer of CIBC FirstCaribbean, Colette Delaney, hailed the bank’s support for the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative as “one of the most significant partnerships our bank has entered in the region. The life expectancy and quality of life of this region’s most vulnerable and valuable citizens – our children – who are battling this disease is being significantly impacted by the work of SCI.”

“We are confident that phase II will build on those gains as we train more nurses, doctors and other medical professionals and facilitate research to support policy recommendations and advocacy,” said Ms Delaney, who is also the Chair of the FirstCaribbean International ComTrust Foundation.

To ensure the work of SCI has a lasting impact, a special SCI advisory committee comprised of business leaders across the Caribbean, will be dedicated to furthering the mission of SCI.

The committee, of which Ms Delaney is a member, will also work with businesses, charities, and governments, including ministries of health, to ensure there is enough capital to continue the work of SCI in the region.