First Caribbean International Bank looks for Unsung Heroes

Since the start of the week, the news has been dominated by the spiraling crime and proposed legislative changes to tackle the epidemic. But while the streets are infested with thieves and murderers, First Caribbean International Bank wants to show that there is still hope for this country in the people who have chosen to do good for their communities. The bank is launching its annual Unsung Heroes Program, which puts the spotlight on average persons who help others without expecting compensation or recognition. The Local Coordinator of the program, Rosanna Villanueva says that this year they have taken a different approach in the call for nominations.

Rosanna Villanueva, Local Coordinator, Unsung Heroes

“We’re making the launch a weeklong activity, we have all our branches decorated, we have booths set up outside our Belcan branch and the Albert Street Branch. We have persons handing out nomination forms; we’ll have nomination forms going out in the newspapers to try to get them circulated more widely across the country and to solicit more nominations.”

Delahnie Bain

“And you’re also calling on some schools to submit nominations.”

Rosanna Villanueva

Rosanna Villanueva

“Yes, we are going to be partnering with some of the secondary and tertiary institutions across Belize in an effort to encourage the students and faculty to look around in their communities and try and identify persons who they can nominate as unsung heroes. What we’re going to be offering them is if one of their nominees is selected as a finalist, the school will receive a cash prize of one thousand Belize dollars. And it’s just simply to encourage that notion of looking around your community, celebrating volunteerism and celebrating goodwill.

Nominees should be persons who are dedicated beyond the ordinary to social improvement, we ask that they be a Caribbean person and have a low or no media profile at all. The cause that they are promoting should be able to benefit from the exposure and of course we ask that they participate in FirstCaribbean’s publicity regarding the program.  Deadline for submission of nominations is thirtieth June. The nomination forms are available at all our branches; you can also access them online on our website, which is www.firstcaribbeanbank.com. The nominations can either be sent in to one of our branches, they can be mailed to me at 21 Albert Street, we welcome all nominations and they all get an equal chance to be considered.”

Local finalists go on to participate in the regional competition, which will includes nominees from the seventeen countries in which FirstCaribbean Bank operates.