Black Immigrant Daily News
Scotiabank remains committed to aiding young people across the island become “well-rounded’ individuals who make positive contributions to their society and on Friday, February 24 this was made a reality.
Thanks to a collaboration between the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation (BEF) and Scotiabank a number of young people from a cross-section of secondary and tertiary institutions demonstrated the importance of giving back to their communities.
enable them to get on, stay on and rise up the economic ladder
This year marked the 7th annual charity event of the $20 Challenge and Scotiabank’s Customer Experience Manager, Andre Marshall highlighted the valuable experiences to which young participants were exposed.
“Today’s event takes the development of our youth to another level, encouraging them to recognise the importance of giving back to their communities,” he said.
He affirmed that the $20 Challenge continued to “positively impact the perspective” of young people while providing opportunities for them “to grow and better understand how they fit into the world around them”.
Marshall went on to affirm Scotiabank’s commitment to the development of young people.
“At Scotiabank, investing in young people is very important to us, that is why I support programmes that help them improve their education and employment prospects so that they can increase their economic resilience, enable them to get on, stay on and rise up the economic ladder,” he stated.
Continuing, he explained: “In keeping with our commitment to developing our young people, it is also important to expose them to the benefits of giving back as this provides a unique sense of purpose by helping others, hence this Charity component of the $20 Challenge was created since 2015, to forge a community-minded spirit in the budding entrepreneurs. Students select their charities to which donations are given – either cash, which would be a percentage of their profits, or in kind, where students give gifts or volunteer their time to work in the charity.”
There were 12 schools that participated with over 60 students involved. The students raised $4, 500 and made donations to 22 charities including The Salvation Army, I Am A Girl, Ocean Acres Animal Sanctuary, Precious Touch Foundation, Ark Welfare Society, the Breast Cancer Society and the Deaf Heart Project, among others. Some donations were also made to churches and departments in the respective schools from which students participated.
The charitable donation is a component of BEF’s $20 Challenge which aims to expose students to entrepreneurial prospects while teaching them valuable skills. They are given a $20 loan and have eight weeks to use the money to create a profitable, innovative and /or community minded business.
NewsAmericasNow.com
