Sco­tia­bank sup­ports Unit­ed Way’s Na­tion­al Time of Car­ing ini­tia­tive to help pre­pare Pri­ma­ry Schools for the new norm. 5,000 stu­dents and 241 teach­ers across 15 schools will ben­e­fit from this ini­tia­tive. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from Sco­tia­bank:

The Unit­ed Way Trinidad and To­ba­go (UWTT) Sup­port for the New Norm Project aims to help se­lect­ed pri­ma­ry schools in high need com­mu­ni­ties, which serve low in­come fam­i­lies, to re-open safe­ly and ef­fi­cient­ly. Since 2020, Sco­tia­bank has sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive, which ben­e­fits 5,000 stu­dents and 241 teach­ers across 15 schools.

Phase 1, which con­clud­ed in March 2021 fo­cused on en­hanc­ing san­i­ti­za­tion and hy­giene, through im­prov­ing and ex­pand­ing wash­room fa­cil­i­ties, in­fra­struc­ture for hand wash­ing sta­tions, pro­vi­sion of face­masks and child and par­ent friend­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion ma­te­ri­als to the schools, as well as sup­port for Prin­ci­pals to de­vel­op a cul­ture of shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for liv­ing in the New Norm. In Sep­tem­ber 2021, UWTT be­gan Phase 2 of the Project, aimed at both in­fra­struc­ture and pro­gram­mat­ic ca­pac­i­ty sup­ports, such as ven­ti­la­tion and in­ter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty to im­prove school readi­ness for im­ple­men­ta­tion of the blend­ed school­ing mod­el.

“In 2020, UWTT piv­ot­ed it’s pop­u­lar Na­tion­al Day of Car­ing Project to the Na­tion­al Time of Car­ing ini­tia­tive and through work­ing with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, spear­head­ed these much-need­ed im­proved safe­ty mea­sures at se­lect­ed Pri­ma­ry Schools for young ones to re­turn to in per­son school­ing. At Sco­tia­bank, we be­lieve that with the right sup­port, chil­dren can re­al­ize their po­ten­tial and un­lock a fu­ture of sus­tained suc­cess that ben­e­fits them, their fam­i­ly and their en­tire com­mu­ni­ty, and as such, we are com­mit­ted to in­vest­ing in a bet­ter fu­ture for our young peo­ple” com­ment­ed Gayle Pa­zos, Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent and Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Sco­tia­bank Trinidad & To­ba­go.

“This is a com­mit­ment shared by UWTT and why we read­i­ly con­tributed to this Project. 40% of the fund­ing for Phase 1, came from Sco­tia­bank and the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion in­clud­ing con­tri­bu­tions by em­ploy­ees. We’re al­so pleased to sup­port with a fur­ther do­na­tion to­wards Phase 2.” Pa­zos con­clud­ed.

Jen­nifer San­cho, Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer, UWTT in­di­cat­ed “UWTT thanks Sco­tia­bank for their long­stand­ing part­ner­ship in our com­mu­ni­ty im­pact pro­grams, es­pe­cial­ly for Phase 1 and, now Phase 2, of the Sup­port for the New Norm in Pri­ma­ry Schools Project. It is through col­lec­tive work­ing and so­cial in­vest­ment in projects like these, that we can ac­tive­ly pre­pare for safe re­turn to in per­son school which is ur­gent­ly need­ed to be­gin to ad­dress learn­ing loss and men­tal health is­sues among chil­dren due to­COVID-19 re­stric­tions.”

Schools in­volved in the Project in­clude: Belle Gar­den An­gli­can School (To­ba­go); Co­corite Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Co­coyea Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Di­a­mond Vale Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Diego Mar­tin Boys RC Pri­ma­ry School; La Hor­quet­ta South Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Mara­bel­la Boys An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School; Matu­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; Nel­son Street Boys Ro­man Catholic Pri­ma­ry; Nel­son Street Girls Ro­man Catholic Pri­ma­ry; Salazar Trace Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; San­ta Rosa Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School; St. Gre­go­ry's An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School; St. Mary's Mu­cu­rapo Boys RC Pri­ma­ry School and St. Mary's Mu­cu­rapo Girls RC Pri­ma­ry School.