Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn (second left); and Permanent Secretary (Ag.) in the Ministry of Finance, Octavia Forde (left), accept a $15,000 cheque from ICAB President, Lydia McCollin (second right); and ICAB Executive Director, Kathy-Ann Hewitt (right). The donation was made to the Government’s Adopt A Family programme at Government headquarters yesterday.
GOVERNMENT’S Adopt A Family programme received a much welcomed donation yesterday from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) worth $15,000.
The cheque of $15,000 was presented to Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, at Government headquarters yesterday morning, who described the donation as timely, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households across the island.
President of ICAB, Lydia McCollin, explained that the body usually makes a donation to a charity during Accountants Week and felt it fitting to contribute to the Adopt A Family programme.
“... Especially coming around at Christmas where people do expect to celebrate more with their families. So we thought this could be done so that we could assist in that area.
“We appealed to our members and they have given generously... We practise the three T’s at ICAB. We give of our ‘Time’, we give of our ‘Talent’ and we give off our ‘Treasure’. Today, we are giving part of our treasure through the collective efforts of our members,” she said.
ICAB’s Executive Director, Kathy-Ann Hewitt, noted that this is the largest collection made by ICAB membership to date.
Minister Straughn thanked ICAB for their generous donation during a particularly challenging time for many Barbadians. “As you all know, COVID-19 certainly has created a large disruption across the economy. But we are thankful for the support not just of ICAB, but all those Barbadians who have so far donated to the Adopt A Family programme.
“It means a lot to the people as Government seeks to ensure that we enhance our social protection programmes at a time which is so critical and therefore as we are deep into this Yuletide season, persons want to feel a little more festive... people still want to have a bit of merriment, and we ask you to do so in as safe a way as possible.
“We are looking forward to 2021 with a little more optimism with the prospect of vaccines being made available and a little responsibility with respect to the pandemic internationally, we feel confident we are on the right path to get back to as close to normality as possible.”
Giving an update on the programme, Minister Straughn noted that the Government had just a few weeks ago topped up the initial $10 million set aside for the initiative. “ICAB’s donation will help to move that needle along a little further. As we go deeper and deeper into the pandemic, we anticipate that there may be more social protection mechanisms which the Government may have to roll out, but we are optimistic that 2021 will bring a much different space with respect to the management of the pandemic.
“When I last spoke in Parliament on this particular measure, you would recall that we had initially set a target of 1,500 vulnerable families. At that time when I spoke, we had reached almost 3,500 that had benefited from the programme, that had benefited from institutions such as ICAB.”
Thanking other charities that have contributed to the programme, he said it is important to work with civil society as well as professional bodies like ICAB. He called on like-minded Barbadians to also go into their communities, noting that a little can go a long way to ease the pain and distress caused by COVID-19. (JH)