Scotiabank branches countrywide to be used as testing sites
SCOTIABANK is partnering with the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership (CBMP) to host Regional HIV Testing Day 2012 at Scotiabank branches in Guyana and in countries across the Caribbean. “Scotiabank is pleased to partner with CBMP to help heighten public interest in, and awareness of, HIV testing,” said Amanda St. Aubyn, Country Manager of Scotiabank in Guyana.
“Supporting the growing programme 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.”
Citizens from 21 countries across the Caribbean are invited to attend the free clinics to get tested for HIV. Select Scotiabank branches in 16 countries in the region are hosting the free clinics.
The clinics in Guyana will be held at the following Scotiabank locations, where trained personnel from the Ministry of Health’s National AIDS Programme Secretariat will be on site to conduct free testing and provide counselling services for individuals who are tested:

Robb Street, Lacytown on Thursday, June 28
Carmichael Street, North Cummingsburg on Friday, June 29
Bartica on Friday, June 29
New Amsterdam    on Friday, June 29
Parika on Sunday, July 1

“I congratulate the Caribbean Media for their committed coverage of this important HIV prevention initiative, now in its fifth year,” said Dr. Allyson Leacock, Executive Director of Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership 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 counselling 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”.
Following the campaign’s continued success, 2012 marks the fifth year Scotiabank will host private and voluntary HIV testing sites for citizens across the Caribbean.
The 2012 Regional HIV Testing Day campaign was officially launched in Kingston, Jamaica on May 25.
Approximately 10,000 people from across the Caribbean are expected to be tested during this year’s campaign. There are 21 territories participating in Regional Testing Day, including: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, BVI, Cayman Islands, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and USVI.
Regional Testing Day has expanded from its pilot programme 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.