Guardian Foundation donates US$312K to Melissa recovery

The Guardian Holdings head office in Westmoorings Trinidad

The Guardian Group Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion has pledged US$312,000 to sup­port re­cov­ery and re­build­ing ef­forts in Ja­maica, fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing im­pact of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

In a news re­lease, the Foun­da­tion said the pledge aligns with a broad­er, co­or­di­nat­ed re­cov­ery ini­tia­tive, the "Build­ing a Bet­ter Ja­maica Fund", led by the Na­tion­al Com­mer­cial Bank Ja­maica (NCB) and ad­min­is­tered by the NCB Foun­da­tion. To date, NCB and its part­ners have raised ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$2.8 mil­lion to ac­cel­er­ate Ja­maica's re­cov­ery, in­clud­ing an ini­tial US$1.25 mil­lion com­mit­ment from NCB, matched by con­tri­bu­tions from long-stand­ing part­ners, and fur­ther strength­ened by Guardian Group's US$312,000 do­na­tion.

The Fund aims to de­liv­er both im­me­di­ate re­lief and long-term re­con­struc­tion for af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties across the is­land. Im­ple­men­ta­tion will be ex­e­cut­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with trust­ed part­ners, in­clud­ing the Amer­i­can Friends of Ja­maica (AFJ), Food for the Poor Ja­maica, UNICEF Ja­maica, and the Glob­al Em­pow­er­ment Mis­sion (GEM), or­gan­i­sa­tions whose proven ex­per­tise and lo­cal net­works will help en­sure that aid reach­es those who need it most.

Shinelle Grant-Sealey, Vice Pres­i­dent, En­vi­ron­ment, So­cial and Gov­er­nance, stat­ed: "As a re­gion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion, our com­mit­ment ex­tends be­yond in­sur­ance; it's about re­silience and re­cov­ery for our com­mu­ni­ties. Our USD 312,000 do­na­tion is an im­me­di­ate in­vest­ment in sta­bil­i­ty, help­ing fam­i­lies and in­sti­tu­tions start the dif­fi­cult jour­ney back. We stand in full sol­i­dar­i­ty with the NCB Foun­da­tion and all ex­e­cu­tion part­ners to re­store Ja­maica."

In ad­di­tion to this re­gion­al con­tri­bu­tion, Guardian Group has al­so mo­bilised in­ter­nal sup­port for em­ploy­ees in Ja­maica who were most af­fect­ed. Through the pro­vi­sion of care pack­ages and on­go­ing out­reach, the or­gan­i­sa­tion con­tin­ues to demon­strate its deep care and com­pas­sion for its peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties.

With op­er­a­tions across Trinidad and To­ba­go, Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos and the Dutch Caribbean, Guardian Group re­mains stead­fast in its pur­pose to pro­vide peace of mind and to stand by the re­gion in times of need, help­ing com­mu­ni­ties re­build, re­cov­er and rise stronger to­geth­er.

Pub­licly list­ed Guardian Hold­ings Lim­it­ed is the par­ent com­pa­ny of Guardian Group, a lead­ing in­te­grat­ed fi­nan­cial ser­vices group in the Caribbean. With a ro­bust port­fo­lio span­ning life, health, prop­er­ty and ca­su­al­ty in­sur­ance, pen­sions and as­set man­age­ment, Guardian Group de­liv­ers com­pre­hen­sive fi­nan­cial so­lu­tions that sup­port in­di­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, and busi­ness­es through every stage of life.

Guardian Hold­ings Lim­it­ed has steadi­ly ex­pand­ed its foot­print and now op­er­ates in 21 mar­kets across the Eng­lish and Dutch Caribbean, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, Cu­raçao, Aru­ba, St. Maarten, Bonaire and be­yond. Guardian Group's prod­ucts and ser­vices are al­so mar­ket­ed through­out the East­ern Caribbean, Ba­hamas, Cay­man Is­lands, U.S. Vir­gin Is­lands, and Be­lize.