Black Immigrant Daily News

Antigua Sailing Week (ASW) is pleased to announce that it has again secured a sponsorship agreement with Virgin Atlantic for commitment as the Official Transatlantic Airline of the 2023 event.

The contract renewal will mark the 5th year of partnership with the must-do Caribbean event which will take place April 29 – May 5, 2023 and ensure that as many sailors as possible can be part of the festivities.Hannah Swift, Caribbean Commercial Manager, Virgin Atlantic said, “Our support of ASW stems from our company’s passion for travel to support an active lifestyle. We want to stay true to our mission of bringing people together through the power of sport, and what better way to do that than sponsor the must do Caribbean sailing event. We want to continue supporting its growth by getting more attendees to the region.”

Antigua Sailing Week brings together participants from more than 25 nations around the world for the opportunity to race or chase in the Caribbean sea, under superb trade winds, in stellar conditions and to celebrate island style.

Virgin Atlantic’s weekly flight schedule currently features flights into and out of Antigua on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In April 2023 the schedule will be Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays which means there are perfectly timed flights for participants who want to race in the optional Round Antigua Race on Saturday 29th April and for all sailors who plan to race in Antigua Sailing Week starting on Sunday 30th April. Spectators planning to travel to Antigua to be here for the week long celebration of yacht racing will find the schedules to their liking and flights will be available for those wanting to fly out the day after the final prize giving on Friday 5th May.As part of the sponsorship Virgin Atlantic will be offering preferred rates to all sailors and their supporters travelling to Antigua to be part of Antigua Sailing Week. To find out how to claim the discount please visit www.sailingweek.com.

Rana-Jamila Lewis, Event & Marketing manager of ASW said: “Virgin Atlantic is considered a key travel partner for the destination of Antigua & Barbuda continuously providing the UK market with reliable airlift and high-quality service. We want to thank the Virgin family for its support of our event and the sport of sailing in particular.”

She added that she was pleased with the renewal with Virgin Atlantic for the additional year. “The timing of the renewal of the partnership was ideal, as it assisted us with being able to plan our overseas marketing efforts in some of their service destinations – namely UK, France & Germany. And with entries to the 2023 regatta now open, its a good time to start confirming any required travel secure your seats at the best rates.”

Discover all of the Virgin Atlantic destinations by visiting www.virginatlantic.com.

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Tesfa Defour (right) and his passenger look on at his wrecked car which collided with a panel van at Tarouba on Sunday. Photo by Marvin Hamilton

Two of four policemen injured in a car crash on Sunday in Tarouba have been discharged from hospital.

On Tuesday, a senior policeman said PCs St John and Colvis were recuperating at home. PCs Edwards and Li were still at the San Fernando General Hospital up to Tuesday afternoon.

Newsday learnt Edwards was in the intensive care unit in critical condition. Li is in stable condition.

The four constables from the Port of Spain Court and Process Unit were injured around 10.30 am on Sunday after doing extra duty at a fete at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.

The crash happened at the intersection of the Brian Lara Stadium Road and Gasparillo ByPass Road. The officers and the two civilians, who suffered minor injuries, were leaving the FOC Colours Of Pandora fete at the academy.

St John was driving his white van on the bypass road, having just turned right out of the Brian Lara Stadium Road.

Video footage shows the car’s driver heading straight out of the same road. The car and van collided and the van flipped, throwing out two of the officers. It landed partly on the car at the roadside.

The car driver, from St Joseph, and his passenger, from San Juan, were examined by paramedics at the scene and allowed to leave.

Cpl Richardson of the Gasparillo police station is investigating.

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The launch of a new medical centre in Barbados is set to transform women’s healthcare.

BioConnect Medical Centre is the only clinic in the Caribbean explicitly devoted to women transitioning through the stages of menopause.

Additionally, Export Barbados (BIDC) is leading the efforts to help Barbados become the life sciences and biotechnology island of the Caribbean by assisting emerging Barbadian businesses in that sector offer their services to the world.

On a recent tour of the facility by a team from BIDC, led by chief executive officer Mark Hill, medical director Dr Roberta Corona explained that BioConnect Medical Centre is the manifestation of her dream of creating a safe space for women and filling the gap in health care and research on menopause. Dr Corona, the only certified menopause practitioner in Barbados, explained that menopause is not simply related to gynecology; it affects every function of a woman’s body. BioConnect’s goal is to treat menopausal women holistically, making them healthier women.

In addition to providing gynecological services and menopause management tailored for each woman, BioConnect offers treatment for hormone optimisation, bone health, incontinence, sexual health, weight management, and aesthetic medicine.

“We are here for the world; we are not here only for Barbados. We are in Barbados because we found Barbados was the perfect location for this. It is the perfect place to serve the Caribbean, where there is a huge lack, even bigger than in Barbados. Our mission is to create a Menopause Society for the Caribbean to create a community that will bring women together, and it will be a platform where we provide education, evidence-based medicine, and . . . a community for women to exchange experiences,” said the medical director.

Chief executive officer Rachel De Gale disclosed that the clinic, which opened on May 23 this year welcomed 125 new patients in its first month as it pursued the mission of changing the health-care landscape and promoting complete wellness. The clinic welcomed patients from the Caribbean and North America.

The BioConnect team is especially pleased about the tremendous support and technical assistance it received from Export Barbados (BIDC), and it is ready to do its part to help Barbados achieve its life sciences goal.

De Gale added, “If you take a look at your telephone screen and you type ‘B,’ ‘I,’ ‘O,’ 246 comes up; it is the area code of Barbados. Barbados was always destined to be the bio life sciences headquarters of the world. No one else has our area code, and now it’s time for us to rise up; it’s time for us to be the leader.”

Mark Hill, CEO of Export Barbados (BIDC), described BioConnect as a trailblazer helping to fulfill a vision for life sciences in Barbados. He stated that the life wellness market is growing between five to 10 percent annually, and he is confident this is a space that Barbadians can invest in and see returns.

CEO Hill stated, “We’re shaping it out that those life-centric industries can use Barbados as that hub to really build out the sector, do research and development, and also to build out scalable industries but high-value services and products. I’m really excited about menopause as a specific, targeted niche area that is catering to women all over the globe, domiciled here in Barbados and in partnership with tourism. We are positioning the life sciences space where we have an ecosystem that makes access to scientific technology a lot more affordable.”

BioConnect intends to conduct studies to gather data and write guidelines specifically for women of color because most studies or guidelines target Caucasians.

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Stuart Dack, CEO of Cayman National Corporation, and Nigel Baptiste, president and CEO of Republic Financial Holdings Ltd, shake on an agreement to merge the operations Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd with Cayman National Bank and Cayman National Securities Ltd. –

The Cayman Islands banking and securities operations of Republic Financials Holdings Ltd (RFHL) are to be acquired, via a merger, by two subsidiaries of Cayman National Corporation (CNC), pending regulatory approvals, it was announced on Monday.

In a statement, CNC said Cayman National Bank (CNB) will merge with Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd. Also, Cayman National Securities Ltd will take over the securities operations of Republic Cayman.

Once finalised, the remaining entities will be Cayman National Bank and Cayman National Securities.

“The merger of these entities rationalises operations in the Cayman Islands and creates efficiencies, with no loss of service to clients or displacement of staff. All Caymanians at (Republic) will continue to be employed within the Cayman National Group following the completion of the mergers,” the CNC statement said.

It also quoted Stuart Dack, CEO of CNC, who said, “We believe this transaction will add great value to the Cayman National Corporation Group” and that the group looked forward to welcoming Republic’s Cayman clients and staff.

Nigel Baptiste, RFHL president and CEO, said the merger brings the TT group “one step closer to streamlining our operations in the Cayman Islands.”

“This move will enable the RFHL Group to enhance the experience of the existing clients of Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd by providing access to a wider array of products and services, and eliminating some of the duplication that currently exists across both entities.”

In the coming weeks, Republic Cayman will provide clients with information about the proposed merger, which will be announced once approved by regulators.

In March 2019, RFHL acquired a majority interest – 74.99 per cent – in CNC for US$198 million via its Barbados banking subsidiary.

Its then chairman Ronald Harford said the acquisition of CNC “will allow us to combine and leverage the talents of our two world-class organisations. We are particularly eager to learn from Cayman National’s experience in international financial services and serving high net worth clients.”

At the time, the deal moved RFHL’s asset base to US$12 billion. Earlier this month, RHFL announced TT$1.15 billion in profit for the nine-months ending June 30.

CNC, established in 1974, reported net income of US$11.2 million for the six-month period ending March 31 – down four per cent for the same period a year ago.

Publicly traded on the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange, CNC comprises – Cayman National Bank Ltd, Cayman National Fund Services Ltd, Cayman National Securities Ltd, Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd and Cayman National Trust Company (Isle of Man) Ltd, and Cayman National (Dubai) Ltd.

Republic Cayman was established in 1992 and holds a trust licence and an unrestricted Class B banking licence under the Banks and Trust Companies Law of the Cayman Islands.

It also holds a mutual funds licence and is a registered excluded person for purposes of the Securities Investment Business Law of the Cayman Islands.

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