Republic Bank Makes A Difference

Enriching the lives of our society now, is ensuring that each generation is left better off than before. This sentiment is the driving force behind the Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited’s corporate social responsibility programme, The Power to Make a Difference. 

In the remarks on the launch and to the beneficiaries of the programme for 2014, Republic Bank’s Manager Marketing and Corporate Communications, Ms. Deborah Stoute stated “It is a moral imperative that we as corporate citizens ensure that those less fortunate in the communities in which we operate are offered a helping hand”. She further noted the focus over the next five years of the programme would be literacy but with particular emphasis on assisting the differently-abled. 

“Barbados is one of the countries with high adult literacy rates.  A recent estimate of 99.7% makes it one of the highest in the world.  The essential ingredient for successful literacy programmes is in place - a good education system which provides free education from primary to tertiary level up to 2013, but still, some children are left behind and these more often than not are the differently-abled,” said featured speaker, Ms. Khin- Sandi Lwin, UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean. 

Lwin also lauded the Bank on its many initiatives over the years noting  “when you have the power to make a difference, starting at a very doable local issue will ultimately lead you towards making a difference at the national and global levels”.  

Through the Power to Make A Difference programme in Barbados, Republic Bank has joined forces and partnered with a number of organisations both government and nongovernmental in building the society through its core areas of youth development though education and sports, health and poverty alleviation and culture.  Since the programme’s introduction in 2004, the Bank has contributed in excess of $6 million with over $500,000 allocated to programmes in 2014.

Beneficiaries at this year’s launch were Living Water Community, Irvin Wilson School for the blind and deaf, Erdiston Special School which focuses on the education of children with physical and mental disabilities, Ann Hill School which was established to cater special education needs, the YMCA to assist with its redevelopment, the Diabetes Association of Barbados to assist with public education programmes, and the Barbados Association of Palliative Care to assist patients and families with life-threating illnesses such as cancer.