Caraifa congress in TT next May

The Caribbean Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers (Caraifa) will host its annual congress in TT next May.

Its aim is to highlight the work of the Caraifa Kidney Foundation and to bring awareness to the hosting of the 2020 annual sale congress to be held in Port of Spain May 3-6, 2020,. Five hundered people from across the region are expected to attend.

Caraifa is an umbrella organisation of regional life underwriters, withmembers in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cayman, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and TT.

Caraifa seeks a recipient each year to benefit from the foundation, and next year that person will come from TT.

Last week the organisation visited the Jamaican high commisioner to TT, Arthur Williams. Its secretary general, Marcelle Fenton, explained: “We understand there are a lot of happenings in TT at this time and because I’m Jamaican too, I figure I would get a quick response, so we did.”

She added: “It is always our intention to visit other members of the diplomatic corps, but not on this trip. When we come here next year for the congress, then we will do that.”

Williams said Caraifa’s work is very interesting.

“I’ve heard of the work that they are doing in the region and I think it is commendable and that they should choose an area that affects so many of our populations in our region, and to seek to help those who suffer from this disease. It is a debilitating one and very costly and therefore the work that they do is very valuable.”

Monica Robotham, public relations, marketing and commercial director of Caraifa, said the organisation represents life insurance agents, and that is its core business.

“But each year we have our annual sales congress that is educational and motivational, so we bring people from the entire Caribbean. Next year we will be at the Hyatt Regency for the congress. One of the things that we do at these congresses is have somebody who is suffering from kidney disease that really needs help, and we give help to them.”

She said Caraifa was born out of the fact that some of ts early members started to develop kidney disease. The lack of awareness in the Caribbean of how serious kidney disease is and the difficulty of getting treatment opened their eyes.

She said most institutions don’t have a means to treat some of people suffering from the disease.

Robotham said: “Next year we would find somebody in TT to support, based on the advice of the local association.”

Immediate past president Wynthrop Catwell said: “It’s a challenging responsibility, but it’s one that we are really excited about. We really believe that Caraifa should be a place where we can lend the expertise because we’ve been doing this for a whole lot of years, so we can bring some experts to bear some expertise on those needs that are out there.”

He added: “Our responsibility is awareness, but we also want to provide support in a way that people will feel that they belong to something, and then we hope that they will also replicate that deed.”

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