CCRIF Provides Payout of US$ 12.8 million to The Bahamas After Hurricane Dorian

CCRIF has made a payout to the Government of The Bahamas totalling US$12.8 million (US$12,824,153) following the passage of Hurricane Dorian that caused widespread devastation in the northern part of the country affecting 2 of the 16 main islands that make up this archipelago of islands and cays. The Bahamas has 3 tropical cyclone policies and 3 excess rainfall policies with CCRIF – each covering a section or zone of the archipelago – North West, South East and Central. The Government received US$11,527,151 from the triggering of its tropical cyclone policy and US$1,297,002 from its excess rainfall policy for the North West zone – which includes Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama. Dorian made landfall on 1 September and battered the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, in the north of the archipelago, for two days.

CCRIF’s payouts are made within 14 days of an event, but in this case CCRIF made an advance payment of 50 per cent of the preliminary estimated payout within 7 days to allow the Government to begin to address its most pressing needs – with the remaining 50 per cent paid within the 14-day window for all CCRIF payouts. In response to the payout, Deputy Prime Minster of The Bahamas Peter Turnquest said in the press, “the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is worth it. The hurricane insurance is going to give us roughly $10.9 million [the initial payout estimate] which is more or less in line with what we expected”.

CCRIF will discuss with the Government of The Bahamas its offer to provide some additional support from the Facility’s corporate social responsibility or technical assistance (TA) Programme. Over the years CCRIF has provided resources from its TA Programme to governments to support specific projects after a natural disaster. In fact, The Bahamas was the recipient in 2012 of a TA grant of US$85,000 following the passage of Hurricane Sandy for the construction of a new sea wall at Sandyport Beach. Similar size grants have been provided over the years to Jamaica (US$ 100,000 for the rehabilitation of the Muirton Boys Home following Hurricane Sandy in 2012) and Dominica (US$100,000 for the construction of new fencing at the Douglas-Charles Airport which was damaged by the Tropical Storm Erika in 2016) among others.

Following the payment, CCRIF CEO, Isaac Anthony said that “member governments are appreciative of this rapid infusion of quick liquidity through CCRIF payouts from its parametric insurance policies which they are able to use to address immediate priorities and to support the most vulnerable in their population”. He noted that “CCRIF, through the parametric insurance products that it provides, is an example of a disaster risk financing tool that is most applicable for high impact low frequency events; and the instrument is designed to allow member governments to reduce their budget volatility and to provide some amount of financial resources for emergency relief such as restoring critical infrastructure and providing assistance to the affected population, thereby assisting to reduce post-disaster resource deficits”.

These rapid payouts are possible because the insurance policies that CCRIF sells are parametric as opposed to indemnity insurance, otherwise referred to as traditional insurance. Parametric insurance products are insurance contracts that make payments based on the intensity of an event (for example, hurricane wind speed, earthquake intensity, volume of rainfall) and the amount of loss calculated in a pre-agreed model caused by these events. Therefore, payouts can be made very quickly after a hazard event, making CCRIF’s parametric insurance different from traditional/indemnity insurance that require an on-the-ground assessment of individual losses after an event before a payment can be made – which can take months for a claim to be settled.

CCRIF encourages member countries to use its parametric insurance policies in conjunction with other disaster risk financing instruments towards building a financial protection strategy that combines a number of instruments that address different layers or types of risk which best balances budgetary conditions with the need to manage the ongoing economic liability which natural disasters present, especially in the face of a changing climate.

Since CCRIF’s inception in 2007, the Facility has made 40 payouts totalling about US$152 million to 13 of its 21 member governments. The truth is, “what we do is really about supporting governments to help their populations – communities, businesses and key sectors such as education, agriculture etc. A rough assessment of the beneficiaries of these payouts show that over 2.5 million persons in the Caribbean and Central America have benefitted directly or indirectly from these payouts after a disaster”, said Mr. Anthony.

CCRIF looks forward to continuing to work with the Government of The Bahamas in their recovery efforts, including supporting the country to increase its long-term resilience to hydrometeorological hazards such as storms and hurricanes, the frequency and impacts of which are being exacerbated by climate change.

CCRIF Makes ADC Payments Following Dorian to Five Member Governments

During Tropical Cyclone Dorian’s initial path through the Caribbean, it affected CCRIF members Barbados, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis and Sint Maarten as a tropical storm. As it strengthened into a hurricane it affected the British Virgin Islands but with tropical-storm-force winds. These governments all have CCRIF policies for tropical cyclones but the modelled losses were below the countries’ policy attachment point and therefore no payouts under the policy were due.

However, these countries all have a special policy feature called the Aggregated Deductible Cover (ADC), which supplements their main tropical cyclone policy. The ADC is a recent policy feature for tropical cyclone and earthquake policies first introduced in the 2017/2018 policy year. It was designed to provide a minimum payment for events that are objectively not sufficient to trigger a CCRIF policy, but which may have caused some level of damage in a member country. Following Dorian, the ADC was activated for Barbados, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands, which received payments totalling US$351,406.

Since the feature was introduced, CCRIF has made seven other payments totalling almost US$700,000 under the ADC of countries’ tropical cyclone or earthquake policies – following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and an earthquake in Haiti in October 2018. Total payments to date under countries’ ADC feature are a little over US$1 million. These payments, while small, allow governments to address immediate pressing needs in the days following the hazard event.

CCRIF Pays Courtesy Call at the Cayman Islands Ministry of Public Finance and Economic Development

On September 18, the CCRIF board, management and team made a courtesy call to the Hon. Roy McTaggart, Minister of Public Finance and Economic Development of the Cayman Islands and other officials of the Ministry. They discussed new developments taking place in the Facility, new products being developed as well as parametric insurance in the context of the country’s overall disaster risk financing strategy. CCRIF also shared information around the Facility’s Technical Assistance Programme and how the country could benefit. The Cayman Islands has been a member of CCRIF since its inception in 2007. CCRIF is registered in the Cayman Islands and set up as a captive insurance company. It is a captive because of the nature of the services it provides and the insurance products it sells, which attract risks that are priced too high by the traditional market. As such, a captive for CCRIF provides a bespoke insurance solution that effectively supports the Facility’s overall risk management strategies.

See link to CCRIF Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021

CCRIF Board Member Ken Blakeley Retires

We wish to say a heartfelt Thank You to Ken Blakeley, who is retiring from the CCRIF Board of Directors, effective October 2019. Ken has been a Board Member since CCRIF’s inception in 2007 and was instrumental in strategically guiding the development of new models and products such as the excess rainfall product which the Facility brought to market in 2013 and the recently launched COAST product for the fisheries sector.

Before he joined CCRIF, Ken had been President of both the Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI) and Eagle Star Insurance Company of Puerto Rico. His 40-year career in the region’s insurance market began with a stint as a Resident Inspector in Trinidad & Tobago leading him to positions as a Managing Director, Agency Manager, Technical Advisor and Director at Billy Craig Insurance Brokers in Jamaica. He also served as the Deputy Chairman, Jamaica Association of General Insurance Companies, Chairman of the Board of Studies for the Insurance Institute of Jamaica and as Chairman of the Insurance Institute of Jamaica.

We thank him for his dedicated and exemplary service as a board member of CCRIF SPC for these past 12 years and wish him well on his retirement.

Over the Years with Board Member – Ken Blakeley…

CCRIF Announces its 2019 Scholarship Winners for Extra-Regional Study

CCRIF SPC has awarded the 2019 scholarships under the CCRIF Scholarship Programme to Ms. Herona Thompson from Jamaica and Mr. Jefferson Jaikissoon from Guyana. They will both be pursuing Master of Science degrees at the University of Leeds – Ms. Thompson in Engineering Geology and Mr. Jaikissoon in Climate Change and Environmental Policy. Each has received a scholarship valued at US$40,000. Ms. Thompson and Mr. Jaikissoon are among 18 Caribbean recipients of these scholarships awarded since the launch of the programme in 2010.

The CCRIF Scholarship Programme is open to nationals from CCRIF member countries in the Caribbean and other CARICOM member states.

CCRIF and Jamaica’s Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. Nigel Clarke Present 2019 Scholarship Award to Herona Thompson

On September 13, 2019 CCRIF Board member, Mrs. Saundra Bailey and Ms. Elizabeth Emanuel, Technical Assistance Manager made a courtesy call on the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Jamaica, The Hon. Nigel Clarke to present the CCRIF 2019 Scholarship Winner, Herona Thompson with her award.

The Minster made brief remarks, highlighting the importance of CCRIF and parametric insurance as one of the tools of disaster risk financing that countries such as Jamaica must employ in its disaster risk financing strategy. He made reference to the fact that Jamaica is currently developing its disaster risk financing policy which will include a mix of disaster risk financing instruments. He also emphasized the fact that Jamaica does not want to experience a hazard event that would lead to a payout but noted that having in place these risk financing instruments is important to ensuring that if there is indeed a disaster, there will be some amount of resources readily available to reduce budget volatility.

Mrs. Saundra Bailey brought brief remarks at the event and highlighted CCRIF’s role in disaster risk financing in the region, pointing out that during CCRIF’s 12 years in existence, the Facility has demonstrated that disaster risk insurance can effectively provide a level of financial protection for countries vulnerable to tropical cyclones, earthquakes and excess rainfall. The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service administers the scholarship on behalf of CCRIF for Jamaicans who receive the scholarship and also bonds scholarship winners so that they return to work in Jamaica or the wider Caribbean after they complete their studies. Ms. Thompson is the fourth Jamaican to receive a scholarship under this programme.

Remarks – Mrs. Saundra Bailey (Excerpts)

I am very pleased to be here today to deliver brief remarks on behalf of the Board and Management of CCRIF SPC on this occasion where we present to Ms. Thompson a CCRIF Scholarship valued at US$40,000 or J$5.2 million to pursue a Master of Science degree in Engineering Geology at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Ms. Thompson, we congratulate you.

Becoming a CCRIF scholarship recipient is no easy feat and it involves a rigorous application process. Ms. Thompson is one of two young persons in the region to receive this scholarship this year – the other recipient is from Guyana. She is also the fourth Jamaican to have received this scholarship under the CCRIF Scholarship Programme and she was also fortunate to have received a CCRIF-UWI Scholarship for two years of her undergraduate studies valued at US$16,000 or J$2.2 million.

Permit me to say a few words about CCRIF, although I know that many of you are well aware of CCRIF and what we do.

Yesterday, September 12, we marked the 31^st anniversary of the passage of Hurricane Gilbert which was catastrophic for our nation. Sixteen years later, Hurricane Ivan unleashed its wrath on the region causing billions of dollars of losses with the Cayman Islands and Grenada being severely impacted. CCRIF was created as an immediate response to Hurricane Ivan. In 2004, The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government approached the World Bank for assistance to design and implement a risk financing mechanism to support member governments and provide quick liquidity in the immediate aftermath of a disaster – within 14 days of an event. This marked the beginning of what would become the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, which was established in 2007 with 16 Caribbean governments as members. Since then, CCRIF – now known as CCRIF SPC – has expanded its membership to include Central America and other Caribbean countries and its current membership is 19 Caribbean governments and 2 Central American governments – and we will be adding a 3^rd by the end of this month.

During CCRIF’s 12 years in existence, the Facility has demonstrated that disaster risk insurance can effectively provide a level of financial protection for countries vulnerable to tropical cyclones, earthquakes and excess rainfall. This year we launched a new product for the fisheries sector, called COAST, in collaboration with the World Bank and the US State Department. Since our inception in 2007, we have made 39 payouts totalling a little over US$150 million to 13 of our 21 member governments.

The latest payout was to The Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian which caused extensive damage to the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco. Lives were lost and many persons are missing. We empathize with the people of The Bahamas and I wish to pause to observe a moment of silence for those who died. You would have also seen in the press that the country’s CCRIF Tropical Cyclone policy was triggered for a payout of US$10.9 million and CCRIF has already paid 50 per cent of this sum.

As you can imply from this, CCRIF was designed to provide a rapid infusion of liquidity after a natural disaster to be able to address immediate priorities and to support the most vulnerable. As the Deputy Prime Minster of The Bahamas said in the press this week, and I quote, “the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is worth it. The hurricane insurance is going to give us roughly $10.9 million which is more or less in line with what we expected”.

A rough assessment of the beneficiaries of the payouts over CCRIF’s 12 years of existence show that over 2.5 million persons in the Caribbean and Central America have benefitted from these payouts. The 13 governments that have benefitted have used the payouts to provide food, shelter and medicine for affected persons; stabilizing drinking water plants; providing building materials to the vulnerable to repair their homes; clearing and repairing critical infrastructure such as roads and bridges as a means of enabling movement and access in and out of communities; payment of government salaries for critical first responders to facilitate the injured being cared for; and support for the agriculture sector among others.

The parametric insurance that CCRIF provides is one of many disaster risk financing tools now available to governments. Others include catastrophe bonds, dedicated reserve funds, contingent credit facilities and I am sure Minister Clarke will add more to this list. These are all complementary tools and are applicable in different scenarios. CCRIF for example has been designed to address high impact low frequency events.

There is a part of the CCRIF Story that many are not aware of – the part that focuses on disaster risk management and reducing the vulnerability of the small island and coastal states that make up the wider Caribbean and Latin America region. CCRIF operates as a not-for-profit company. The profit or surplus is allocated in two ways – part goes to our member governments in the form of reduced premiums on policies purchased and the other part goes into a Technical Assistance (TA) Programme which has been designed to assist Caribbean countries deepen their understanding of natural hazards and catastrophe risk, and the potential impacts of climate change on the region. The TA Programme, launched in 2010, is designed to enable CCRIF to achieve its mission of assisting its member governments and their communities in understanding and reducing the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of natural catastrophes, while at the same time contributing to the long-term sustainability of the region.

The programme has three key components:

This scholarship that we will present Ms. Thompson today is part of the first Component. Since the launch of the TA programme, CCRIF has invested US$3 million or J$400 million in this programme which has benefitted students across the region for scholarships at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other tertiary institutions; community groups that are able to receive grant funds of up to US$25,000 (J$3.5M) for projects related to disaster risk management, ecosystems management and capacity building among others.

We also have a range of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with regional organizations in which we fund work plans and engage in projects that support vulnerability reduction and ecosystem management – CDEMA, CCCCC, OECS, among others. CCRIF has provided 79 scholarships valued at about US$1.1 million or approximately J$150 million and over 100 internships in the last four years valued at US$300,000 or J$40 million. Of the US$3 million spent on this TA programme, Jamaica has received about 23 per cent of this total – US$625,000 or J$85 million (including the refurbishing of the Muirton Boys Home where a grant of US$100,000 was given following damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012).

We continue to be excited by this TA programme and the outcomes of the programme… and I once again congratulate Ms. Thompson and wish you all the very best in your studies. I thank the Ministry of Finance for arranging the bonding agreement that will ensure that Ms. Thompson returns to work at PCJ or elsewhere in Jamaica or the Caribbean.

CCRIF Presents Jamaica’s Minister of Finance with its Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021

CCRIF Technical Assistance Manager and Head of Corporate Communications recently took the opportunity to present the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Dr. Nigel Clarke with a copy of the CCRIF Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021.

In preparing its 2018 – 2021 Strategic Plan, CCRIF utilized a slightly different approach compared to previous years. The Facility engaged its members and key stakeholders in a range of participatory activities to assist in defining the strategic direction of the Facility over its second decade of operations. Two activities worth mentioning are: a 1-day stakeholder retreat – which involved participation from over 45 individuals comprising member governments, international development partners and key regional organizations; and a stakeholder assessment study which was designed in part to analyze the views and perceptions of stakeholders on CCRIF, including feedback on scaling up of CCRIF in terms of new products, increasing coverage levels amongst existing members and adding new members. Both activities and the results contained therein served as valuable inputs for the Board, management and service provider teams to reflect on and infuse into the strategic planning process.

CCRIF’s 2018 – 2021 Strategic Plan therefore presents the strategic views of the community we serve and the Facility is proud that during this period we will be implementing strategies and actions that are based on stakeholder participation and broad consensus.

The CCRIF Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021 is being implemented during a period in which CARICOM has declared its bold ambition to make the Caribbean the first climate-resilient zone in the world. CCRIF wishes to play its part in helping our region realize this stated ambition.

CCRIF COO Delivers Presentation at Regional Development Banking in the Caribbean Conference

CCRIF COO, Ms. Gillian Golah, delivered a presentation in July on the “Impact of Natural Disasters on Banks’ Asset Portfolios and the Role of CCRIF SPC” at the Development Banking in the Caribbean: A Regional Approach to Sustainable Development Conference held in Saint Lucia. The Conference was organized by the Caribbean Development Bank and the Saint Lucia Development Bank. Ms. Golah focussed her presentation on the following: the importance of linking fiscal policy with disaster risk management and financing; the impact of natural disasters on financial institutions; CCRIF and parametric insurance as a possible solution to financial institutions following a natural disaster; and how parametric insurance solutions such as those provided by CCRIF can work for financial institutions.

The link to her presentation is here.

 “Innovative Fisheries Insurance Benefits Caribbean Fisherfolk”, prepared by the World Bank and CCRIF SPC

Each year, during the Atlantic Hurricane Season, tropical cyclones make landfall in the countries of the Caribbean, causing damage and affecting the livelihoods of people including vulnerable groups such as fishing communities, farmers, seasonal tourism and construction workers among others. The most recent example of the impact of these tropical cyclones is Hurricane Dorian and we have seen heartbreaking images of damage and destruction for most of the archipelago of The Bahamas.

High winds, strong rainfall and storm surges often affect countries in the region leaving devastation and losses to the fishing industry. Evidence has shown that after climate-related events, fishing communities have suffered impacts such as loss of productive assets – boats, vessels, fishing gear, and ice facilities, and have experienced reduced coverage and quality of public services such as electricity, fueling stations, piers, and roads after such events. These losses hamper the potential to catch, preserve and deliver products to market with disproportionate impacts on poorest communities.

According to Julian Alexis, Manager of the Soufriere Fishermen’s Co-operative in Saint Lucia, “It is difficult for the cooperative because right after the storm they want to go out, but they don’t have the finances to recover (…) none of the societies or the people in the cooperatives have access to insurance at this point.”

The fisheries sector in the Caribbean is a major source of livelihoods and contributes significantly to the food security of the region as well as the tourism sector which many islands depend on. The fisheries sector employs over 300,000 people in the Caribbean, both directly and indirectly (through sales, packaging, etc.). Many of the fisherfolk in the region reside in rural communities where fishing and farming are the primary economic activities.

While the sector is highly vulnerable to climate hazards like storms, it has the potential to also bounce back quickly, and as soon as fisherfolk have favorable weather conditions and functioning boats, they can resume fishing and provide food to communities that could otherwise be isolated after a disaster. Rapid recovery of the fisheries sector after a disaster is therefore critical for the food security of many communities in the Caribbean, therefore, any scheme supporting a quick recovery will contribute in many ways to lessen the overall impact of the disaster.

In response to these challenges, the fishing industry now can count on a parametric insurance product developed specifically for the fisherfolk in the Caribbean by the “Caribbean Oceans and Aquaculture SusTainability Facility (COAST).

COAST was launched in two countries: Grenada and Saint Lucia. With financial support from the US Department of State, the World Bank, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF SPC), and the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) have developed this first ever parametric insurance for the fisheries sector, which is designed to enhance resilience against the impacts of climate-related disasters.

While it is the government that purchases the COAST insurance policy, the policy is unique as the final beneficiaries are the fisherfolk and other persons in the sector such as boat captains, fish vendors etc. The government disburses any payouts on the policy to these fisherfolk. Jose Angel Villalobos, the World Bank’s co-leader of COAST noted that “this product has been tailored, using state-of the-art knowledge, to the actual needs and interests of the final client, which in this case are the fisherfolk as defined by the government, as well as transferring the government’s specific contingent liabilities to the private sector.”

The COAST product was designed to provide rapid payouts to fisherfolk after a “bad weather” event (based on high waves and heavy rainfall) or a tropical cyclone (based on wind and storm surge). This brings some relief to the fishing community allowing them to recover more quickly.  “Fishers don’t have enough savings to meet the needs during or after an event,” says Joanna Melville, Manager from Gros Islet Fisheries Cooperative in Saint Lucia.

During workshops conducted in Saint Lucia and Grenada with fisherfolk, many were delighted with being able to access insurance for the first time. “As with any insurance, it gives you an ability to get something to start up… for fisherfolk, for any payout that they are going to receive, it will make up sort of for the down time. So, if you give them a little something that they can perhaps buy their food, or whatever it is for the time they are down” said Kaygianna Toussant Charleny from the Goodwill Fishermen Cooperative at Vieux Fort.

An important feature of COAST insurance is that fish vendors for the first time are being covered by insurance, as COAST encourages all registered people working in the fisheries sector to be insured.

According to Sylvia Michele Diez, one of the World Bank’s co-leaders of COAST, “The ultimate objective of COAST is really to promote resilience in the fisheries sector and more sustainable fishing practices. As a first step, COAST is helping to formalize the sector by incentivizing fishers to get registered in exchange for the insurance.”

According to CCRIF CEO, Isaac Anthony, “CCRIF is pleased to have brought to market another parametric insurance product – another innovative climate risk insurance mechanism that will be an essential tool to help address the impacts of natural hazards on food security and livelihoods of those working in the fisheries sector… a product that can be replicated for other small island developing states, many of which rely heavily on the resources of the sea for their livelihoods and their nutrition.”

To learn more about COAST, please see link to COAST booklet

COAST Innovative Features:

The CCRIF Scholarship Programme

The CCRIF Scholarship Programme is part of CCRIF’s Technical Assistance (TA) Programme which has been designed to assist Caribbean countries deepen their understanding of natural hazards and catastrophe risk, and the potential impacts of climate change on the region. The TA Programme enables the Facility to achieve its mission of assisting member governments and their communities in understanding and reducing the socio-economic and environmental impacts of natural catastrophes, whilst at the same time contributing to the long-term sustainability of the Region.

Since the inception of this scholarship programme in 2010, CCRIF has provided scholarships totalling approximately US$625,000 to 18 Caribbean nationals. Students conduct research in areas related to disaster risk management, climate change, meteorology and other related fields.

A Selection of Dissertation Topics of CCRIF Scholars Over the Years

Dissertations and papers can be found at:

The CCRIF-UWI Scholarship Programme

In addition, through the CCRIF-UWI Scholarship Programme, CCRIF provides scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate study at The University of the West Indies in areas related to disaster risk management, meteorology, civil engineering, geography and natural resource management. The CCRIF-UWI Scholarship Programme was launched in 2010. Since 2010, CCRIF has awarded 61 scholarships totalling over US$513,000 through this programme. CCRIF and UWI will announce the 2019 scholarship winners under this programme at the end of September with 7 students expected to receive scholarships – 4 at the undergraduate level and 3 at the postgraduate level.

Testimonials from Some 2017/18 and 2018/19 UWI Undergraduate Scholars

Ashanie Long-Reid (Mona Campus), a Jamaican, is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Geology and Computer Science in the Faculty of Science and Technology.

“I was extremely elated and immensely humbled when I found out that I was selected to be a recipient of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Scholarship. Before receiving this award, I was worried about my growing student loans and my inability to cover all my other expenses including my rent. However, I am now able to focus on my studies without the added pressure of financial woes. Thank you donor(s) for this life changing opportunity!”

Renea Gordon (Mona Campus), a Jamaican, is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Geography in the Faculty of Science and Technology.

“Thank you to the donors of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Scholarship. This award means a lot to me because prior to receiving this scholarship, it was difficult financially. Coming from a single mother household it is often times difficult to make ends meet. This scholarship will more than go a long way for me and for that I am forever grateful.”

Andre Brathwaite (Cave Hill Campus), a Barbadian, is pursuing his undergraduate degree in Meteorology and Computer Science in the Faculty of Science and Technology.

“I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to continue on the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Scholarship. As an awardee, the financial burden to pursue my degree is greatly reduced. The peace of mind offered by this scholarship is priceless as I can now channel more of my focus towards my studies. Thank you and the donor(s) so very much, because of this award, I was not only able to conquer my courses, but I also raised my GPA to near that of First Class Honours. Thank you!”

Jamala Alexander (St. Augustine Campus), a Trinidadian, is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Geography, Environmental & Natural Resource Management in the Faculty of Food & Agriculture

“I am honoured to be awarded the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) Scholarship and grateful for the opportunities that it will grant me. I now know that my chances of success will increase greatly as this scholarship will help to reduce the financial burden placed upon my family in terms of university fees and monthly rental charges. Knowing that I will no longer have to worry about the impact of these sacrifices, will allow me to invest even more time in my studies, research and extracurricular activities.

Thank you, donors, for your investment in my future!

Abigail Jones (Mona Campus), a Jamaican, is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Geography in the Faculty of Humanities and Education.

“Being the child of a civil servant, we did not have much disposable income going into university. In addition to taking out a student loan to cover my tuition, my mother had to take out a loan each year to be able to pay for my accommodation as the three hour commute from home in Hanover to campus would be very difficult. Thank you for choosing me as one of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) Scholarship recipients. I will now be able to focus on my courses and continue my university education.  In 2019, I will be a second-generation university graduate.

I thank you wholeheartedly CCRIF, for providing me with this opportunity to further my education.

Fond/Malgretoute River Reforestation and Riverbank Stabilization Project, Saint Lucia