Nariba Gittens (left) in conversation with Glendon Belle, President of the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Limited and Ms. Clorinda Alleyne, Group CEO of the BPWCCUL.
Credit union bringing hope to youth
Sun, 05/22/2016 - 12:00am
THE Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Limited (BPWCCUL) has been at the forefront of the drive to bring hope to many Barbadians, including young people.
So says Ms. Clorinda Alleyne, Group CEO of the BPWCCUL, while speaking at the function hosting this year’s Olive Trotman Memorial Lecture.
The lecture at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre was presented by Ms. Nariba Gittens, a Barbadian Engineer who is currently based in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East.
Ms. Alleyne told the ceremony that there are opportunities for corporate entities like the credit union to fill the breach created in the lives of young people by force of circumstances of birth, robbing them of the right to dream before they are aware.
“From inception this Credit Union has implemented programmes to fill the breach, to give back, to serve the underserved, bringing hope to those with no hope and likelihood of success, mitigating the hopelessness,” Ms. Alleyne told the function.
She maintained that young people need not only to be told of success. “We must show them what it looks like or can look like,” she declared.
According to her, “It is timely that for the first time in the 14 years since the commencement of this lecture series, the presenter is quite young. For you repeat attendees you can attest that Nariba is the youngest of them all, having hardly lost her parent’s features.”
The BPWCCUL official noted that Nariba’s presence also “reminds that there are countless young people across Barbados and in the Diaspora who continue to achieve with excellence and who serve as an inspiration to others”. (JB)