Scotiabank promotes healthy lifestyles and HIV testing
Scotia is not only trying to reach youth’s in the region. The bank is also promoting healthy lifestyles for adults. June twenty-seventh is the bank’s regional testing day for HIV/AIDS and it is being celebrated nationally today in Belize. And according to marketing manager, Josie Andrews, the community has fully utilized the one- day free clinic at it’s Belama Branch.
Josie Andrews, Marketing Manager, Scotia Bank
“Here in Belize we usually adopt the day of December first but because we are part of a bigger bank, we decided to show a bit of support and here at our Belama branch to facilitate the community and along with the Ministry of Health to provide free HIV and AIDS testing.”
Jose Sanchez
“Is it only open to customers of the bank or anyone that comes by?”
Josie Andrews
“It is open up to the customers of the bank, the general public, anyone can come by and within ten minutes time you have your results.”
Bernadine Grinage, Acting VCT Coordinator, Cleopatra White
“All your information is kept confidential. Only health care providers will have access to your information on a need to know basis. Other than that you are the only person who can give out your information to who you want, when you want. The process itself, after taking the information is withdrawing your blood, which is about a t-spoon of blood or about five mil and that takes a matter of seconds for us to do the blood draw and then we proceed to do the test. The test itself, the process takes about five minutes. We put the test tube with the blood in the centrifuge. The spinning separates the red blood cell from the serum. It’s the serum we use to put on the test strip. The result is accurate; it’s like ninety-nine point nine percent accurate and thereafter you get your result.”
Though Scotia’s promotion of blood testing is over, Bernadine Grinage, Acting Coordinator for the Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center in Belize City, says that persons interested knowing their HIV status can visit her at the Cleopatra White Clinic where pre and post test counseling are offered.
