FirstCaribbean looking for unsung heroes

With our geographic isolation from the rest of CARICOM, Belize does not often stand out in the day to day affairs of the regional group. But there’s one area in which our nation has excelled.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Three times in its first four years of existence, the winner in FirstCaribbean’s Regional Unsung Heroes competition has been a Belizean: will there be a repeat performance in 2007?

Irene Hernandez, Country Coordinator, 2007 Unsung Heroes
“And the programme has been running for only four. So we have been successful for three years, hopefully in 2007 we will be successful again.”

The programme conducted in seventeen Caribbean countries honours persons who quietly and selflessly work towards enhancing the lives of others.

Irene Hernandez
“Most of them have come from small communities and nobody knows about them really until we are told about them and that’s when they reveal themselves.”

The candidates are nominated by members of the public who believe their nominee meets the programme’s criteria. Today, the bank launched this year’s initiative. According to country coordinator Irene Hernandez, the public has until July twenty-eight to hand in their nominations.

Irene Hernandez
“We are actually looking for people who give of themselves, not wanting anything in return. It can be whatever their causes are: it could be in the medical field, it could be in education, it could be in just a small community in one of the villages.”

The three past winners from Belize are the Director of Youth Enhancement Services, Florence Dillet; the founder of the Good Shepherd Clinic, Nurse Margaret Juan; and veteran educator Gloria Edwards.

Nomination forms for Unsung Heroes are available at all FirstCaribbean bank branches or on their website www.firstcaribbeannbank.com. Winners of the local Unsung Heroes competition, announced in October, will be awarded five thousand U.S dollars toward their favourite cause. Those awardees from across the Caribbean will then be eligible to win an additional seven thousand five hundred U.S. dollars in the regional competition. The winner and runner ups will be announced in November.