“Scotiabank is pleased to partner with CBMP and the Department of Health to help heighten public interest in and awareness of HIV testing,” said Sadie Clendinen, marketing manager, U.S.V.I. “Supporting the growing program is part of our ongoing commitment to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS in the communities where we work and live, and aligns with Scotiabank’s global strategy on HIV/AIDS.”
Select Scotiabank branches in 16 countries in the region are hosting the free clinics. The clinics in the Virgin Islands will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, June 29, at the Havensight, St. Thomas and Sunny Isle, St. Croix branches, where trained personnel from the local Department of Health will be on site to conduct free testing clinics and provide counseling services for individuals who are tested.
"I congratulate Caribbean media for their committed coverage of this HIV prevention initiative now in its fifth year,” said Dr. Allyson Leacock, Ph.D., executive director, CBMP on HIV/AIDS. “This unique collaboration, conceived by the CBMP with media mounting a month-long campaign; the exemplary support from the private-sector in Scotiabank offering its locations as some of the testing sites; and the delivery of the technical expertise of voluntary counseling and testing by the public sector through ministries and Departments of Health, mobilized by PANCAP, is a model of the power of partnership in the response to HIV in our region."
Approximately 10,000 people from 21 Caribbean countries are expected to be tested during this year’s campaign. Regional Testing Day has expanded from its pilot program five years ago. In 2008, the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership (CBMP) on HIV/AIDS and Scotiabank in collaboration with regional Ministries of Health piloted the Caribbean’s first Regional HIV Testing Day in Barbados. In 2011, more than 10,000 people from 20 countries across the Caribbean were tested for HIV at Scotiabank branches and other locations.






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