Red Cross makes a difference despite financial struggles

Cayman News | 29/01/2015 | 0 Comments

Volunteer of the Year 2014 Olivia Raposo with Deputy Govenor Franz
Manderson

(CNS): Despite a difficult year financially for Cayman Islands Red Cross, officials revealed during its annual celebration of volunteers that the charity had achieved some significant accomplishments in 2014. From the training of well over a thousand people in basic first aid to assist families in need to clearing up community areas as part of its disaster management programme, the NGO with the help of volunteers made a positive mark in the community.

The CIRC has four main programmes. The Disaster Management programme, which trained over 50 community members as part of the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in both Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, embarked on the second phase of the Disaster Risk Reduction project by assisting communities with mitigation projects aimed at reducing their risks and increasing their capacities. Mitigation projects, which will be carried into the new year, range from working with communities to provide after school assistance, to erecting disaster supplies containers, and help assist make areas safer by cutting down overgrown trees and bush in key areas with high criminality and high prevalence of vermin.

Meanwhile, the First Aid programme broke new ground with the first ever Junior Lifeguard training, where 30 local youth were trained as junior lifeguards. Lifeguarding also saw another first as the CIRC held the first Lifeguard Instructors training, helping to build national capacity. 2014 was also a year of achievements for the first aid aspect of the programme, where over 1,000 members of the public were trained by the CIRC in basic First Aid/ CPR and AED.

The Thrift Shop assisted over 100 clients over the course of 2014 by providing furniture, clothing and household items to those referred by DCFS and other partner agencies, as well as those assessed by the CIRC. The Thrift Shop continued to make its affordable good available throughout the community through its Deals on Wheels programme which visited all four of the outer districts multiple times during the year. Lastly, and equally as significant, the Thrift Shop continued on its journey to improve the customer experience by its ongoing training programme of CIRC volunteers.

And finally, the HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Programme achieved major successes via it’s multi-agency partnership project “Protection starts here” (PSH). Through this project, the CIRC and its partners were able to complete and launch a local DVD tool aimed at empowering adults with local information about child sexual abuse- in general and Cayman specific, trained over 300 persons in the Darkness to Light- Stewards of Children child sexual abuse prevention programme, and hosted “Girls Will” a girls empowerment conference for young women ages 12 and up.

On Saturday 17 January the volunteers who help the NGO provide these services were celebrated at a special event where the deputy governor, Franz Manderson, was on hand to help mark the achievements.

“At a time when you can’t turn on the radio without hearing more about what is going wrong and what needs to change, you are part of the solution,” Manderson told the volunteers, acknowledging their contribution to the nation.

Past chairman and volunteer Peter Milburn, who served as chair for seven years, was recognised by the organisation not only for his outstanding contributions but also for his long-standing commitment to the work of the Red Cross.

But Deputy Director, Carolina Ferreira said volunteers don’t do what they do for the awards.

“They do what they do for the love of their community and a genuine interest in leaving things a little better than how they found it. We know there is no way to appropriately thank them for their contributions, but there are far too many ‘thankless’ jobs out there, so at the very least we can try to let them know just how grateful we are for their commitment and that they are appreciated,” she added.

Listed below are volunteers who were honoured:

For the Disaster Management Programme: “DM Volunteer of the Year 2014”- Ransford Fagan; “Outstanding Community Support- Disaster Risk Reduction” Herfer Hyde, Nicole Hyde and Elaine Thomas; “Effective Newcomer 2014” Simon Watson; “Finance Guru- Disaster Risk Reduction” Christine Godfray.

For the First Aid Programme: “First Aider of the Year”- Olivia Raposo and Dulsey McCoy; “First Aid Programme Support”- Patrick Todd.

For the Thrift Shop Programme: “Thrift Shop Volunteer of the Year”- Olivia Raposo; “Shop Floor Award 2014”-Sonia Morris; “All Around Support”- Marcia Kelly; “TS Container Project Award” Orville Hutchinson.

For the HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Programme: “Outstanding contribution and support of the CI Red Cross” in the Protection Starts Here project: Mari Abe, Cindy Blekaitis, Sophia Chandler-Alleyne, Nancy Davey, Laura Elniski, Camila Ferreira, Miriam Foster, Ben Hudson, and Ania Sedgley.

For general office administration: “Commuity Events Special Support”- Horace English; “General Administration Support”- Kerene Husbands; “Fundraising Initiative”- Susan Singleton.

Volunteer of the Year 2013 Dulsey McCoy delivered the Volunteer of the Year 2014 award to her friend Olivia Raposo, who also won the “Volunteers’ Choice” award, decided solely by the volunteer themselves.