KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Eleven Caribbean students pursuing undergraduate and post-graduate studies in areas related to comprehensive disaster risk management (CDRM) have recently received scholarships from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) segregated portfolio company (SPC).
The Ceremony to hand over the Scholarships totaling US$80,000 took place at the Regional headquarters of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica early last week. It pushed the value of scholarships issued by the CCRIF SPC to above US$ 1.8 million with 176 recipients.
A statement from CCRIF SPC said the “award ceremony represented a celebration of scholarship and success and was a testament to the role that CCRIF is playing in investing in and nurturing a talent pool of youth in the areas of CDRM.
CCRIF Board Member Mrs. Saundra Bailey, in her remarks, said, “To our scholars, congratulations. We are proud of our decision to choose you as CCRIF scholars.
You are our future, and the future we want is based on the decisions we make today. Use this opportunity to define your success, shape your country’s future, and be an agent of change”.
Six Jamaicans, three Trinidadians, one Barbadian, and one Belizean were among this year’s CCRIF SPC scholarship recipients.
Jamaican Patrick Burke, pursuing a Master of Science in Enterprise Risk Management, said obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree was challenging given his history as a state ward for 17 years.
“Being faced with disdain, ridicule, and stigma became a norm forward, and this affected me throughout high school and university,” Burke said, adding that “the reality is that being in a boys’ home was a constant battle, mentally, physically and emotionally – especially because education was never viewed as an essential subject.
“However, I did not allow what I went through to affect my futuristic goal,” he added.
The other areas of study being pursued by scholarship recipients this year are environmental management, seismology, natural resource management, built environment, civil engineering, geology, and renewable energy management.
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