Sagicor 'adopts' Mundo Nuevo Primary School

For the next year, Mundo Nuevo Primary School will be one of eight primary schools in the Southern Caribbean supported by Sagicor’s 2021/2022 Adopt-A-School programme.

The company made the announcement on Thursday during a virtual ceremony where it pledged over US$50,000 to fund projects in these schools to contribute to holistic student development.

Projects will fall under four pillars: student wellness checks, school beautification, bolstering school safety and expanding learning programmes.

Speaking in a pre-recorded message during the ceremony, principal Bernadine Subero-Dogan said the entire Mundo Nuevo community will benefit from the school’s participation in the programme.

She said, “Being a school in a low socio-economic area, it can sometimes be difficult to access resources to improve students' lives and development.

“We are honoured to have been selected for Sagicor’s Adopt-A-School initiative and to be given the opportunity to improve the lives of our students, staff and, by extension, community.”

The school was selected from over 100 schools in Trinidad and Tobago nominated for the programme.

Sagicor representative Keisha Brathwaite gave a walk-through of how schools were selected.

“We invited our team members from across our entire group to nominate the schools that they felt that we should be in.

“Our team members are the ones going out in their communities, so they know the schools and the work that needs to be done in each of these institutions.

“We then formed an adopt-a-school selection committee and that committee was also comprised from across the organisation.”

Once the committee assessed the needs of all nominated schools, Brathwaite said, a shortlist was created.

This list was then vetted by the company’s marketing department, which interviewed officials from the shortlisted schools and did site visits. When vetting was completed, the list was sent back to the committee, which selected the final eight schools.

She said Mundo Nuevo Primary was selected because the company saw the dedication of the staff, the abundance of talent at the school and the potential to further contribute to its development.

During the ceremony, students from the school performed an original calypso called Good Citizens.

Other schools selected :

Collegio Santa Famia (Aruba)

Workman’s Primary (Barbados)

St Martin’s Mangrove (Barbados)

St John’s Primary (Belize)

Collegio Don Sarto (Curacao)

The Victoria School for Special Education (Grenada)

Evesham School (St Vincent and the Grenadines).