The Min­istry of Health’s na­tion­al im­mu­niza­tion pro­gramme got a boost re­cent­ly, with the do­na­tion of 27,600 Med­ical AD Sy­ringes Nee­dles via the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (PA­HO).

The do­na­tion, val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly USD $34,000, was made pos­si­ble cour­tesy the Al­ma Jean Hen­ry Char­i­ta­ble Trust (AJHCT), ac­cord­ing to a re­lease is­sued by PA­HO.

The of­fi­cial hand­ing over of med­ical sup­plies took place last Thurs­day, May 12, with PA­HO/WHO's Coun­try Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Dr Er­i­ca Wheel­er, pre­sent­ing the gift to Min­is­ter of Health, Ter­rence Deyals­ingh MP.

PA­HO says the med­ical equip­ment will as­sist the Min­istry with its ex­pand­ed pro­gram of Im­mu­niza­tion and its vac­cine roll out.

“Ms. Al­ma Jean Hen­ry was a pro­lif­ic Trinidad and To­ba­go vo­cal­ist who gained in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim as a con­cert con­tral­to opera singer, per­form­ing in Africa, Chi­na, Is­rael, Eu­rope and the Caribbean. We re­mem­ber her hu­man­i­tar­i­an­ism as much as her mu­si­cal tal­ent,” the PA­HO re­lease stat­ed.

Ms Hen­ry has left a lega­cy of phil­an­thropy as Founder/Di­rec­tor of the IF­F­CARE—the In­ter­na­tion­al Fel­low­ship for Care, Re-hous­ing and Ed­u­ca­tion Char­i­ty—as well as with the es­tab­lish­ment of the AJHCT in 2001, which was cre­at­ed two years af­ter she suc­cumbed to can­cer in 1999.

“The AJHCT has touched many lives, pro­vid­ing grants to oth­er char­i­ties for the re­lief, sup­port or ed­u­ca­tion of home­less per­sons and oth­er dis­cre­tionary grants,” said the re­lease from PA­HO. 

It added: “PA­HO/WHO rec­og­nizes the con­tri­bu­tion of its donors and is com­mit­ted to strength­en­ing these ef­forts in sup­port of Trinidad and To­ba­go's COVID-19 re­sponse.”