Bridgetown, Barbados, 9th January 2014

People in three Caribbean islands affected by the Christmas Eve weather system that caused significant flood and landslide damage will receive some additional welcome assistance from CIBC FirstCaribbean. The bank has donated $200,000 EC for relief for persons trying to rebuild and recover following the passage of the weather system. The funds, donated through the bank’s CIBC FirstCaribbean ComTrust Foundation, will go towards securing much-needed items to be distributed to people in St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines and Dominica.

$100,000 EC will go towards ongoing relief efforts in St. Vincent, the most severely affected island, and will be distributed among a number of projects:

– $10,000 – School supplies for children who lost these items in the floods

– $25,000 – Contribution to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital

– $40,000 – To be contributed to National Emergency Management Office for food items and toiletries

– $20,000 – To be used by the Bank’s St. Vincent Management through its Sports and Social Activities committee in a staff outreach within the various communities

– $5,000 – To NEMO to cover the cost of transportation of items from NEMO to shelters across the island

Additionally, $50,000 EC will go towards relief efforts in St. Lucia:

– $25,000 to NEMO for replacement of school supplies for children who lost these items in the floods.

– $25,000 to the Red Cross to meet a critical need for clean-up items and toiletries

The St. Lucia Red Cross lost one of their store houses as a result of a fire shortly after the flooding and they suffered significant loss, so the funds donated will go towards replacing some of the loss.

In Dominica, $50,000 EC will be donated to the Red Cross. The Dominica Red Cross (DRC) has been collaborating with the Office of Disaster Management and Local Government departments to provide basic relief items to 48 households affected by the recent event. Funding from CIBC FirstCaribbean will go towards that project.

Chief Executive Officer, Rik Parkhill, who is also Chairman of the ComTrust Foundation, noted: “Foundation’s mandate is to assist communities in need in the Caribbean, so we have a history of providing assistance when countries in which we operate are affected by disaster. While we are happy that our employees in these three countries emerged relatively unscathed, we were extremely saddened to hear that there was loss of life as a result of this weather event. We hope that our donation to the relief efforts in the three countries will assist in providing some comfort to those people who were affected and who will take some time to fully recover from this disaster.”

Managing Director of Retail Banking, Mark St. Hill, who is also a Trustee of the Foundation, echoed the sentiments expressed by the CEO. He added: “It’s part of our duty as a leading corporate citizen in the Caribbean to make our contribution when events like this take place.

“While our staff did not suffer any major displacement, given to small size of our communities, there’s a good chance many of them may know someone who was affected, so we feel compelled to help on behalf of our people across the region.”

The CIBC FirstCaribbean ComTrust Foundation was established by the bank in 2003, to manage its corporate social responsibility programmes across the region. Through theFoundation, the bank has contributed nearly $16M US to worthwhile projects across the Caribbean.