Scotiabank commits $3 million as title partner for Run for Mom 5K supporting teen mothers

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Run for Mom 5K, slated for Mother’s Day, 10 May, now carries Scotiabank as its headline corporate backer, after the financial group put three million dollars on the table to bolster services for adolescent mothers through the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation.

On Friday, the bank formally handed over the funds to Dr Lawrence Scott, a heart specialist who leads the Heart and Vascular Centre and steers the annual race. He said the arrangement marked an occasion he would long recall.

“We’ve been in dialogue with Scotiabank about the initiative. Their leadership has been very engaging because it aligns with their support of families, communities and nation-building. So going ahead, you know, they’ve done due diligence and due processing, and they’re now willing to lend their support for title sponsorship for the run for 5K,” Scott said.

Scott also noted that sponsor income from the walk-run would chiefly reach the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation, while the Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Charles Chin Loy Health Centre would share in the benefits as joint recipients.

Novlet Howell, executive director of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation, said she was pleased Scotiabank had signed on to the drive to back Jamaican women.

“Scotiabank is a world brand and has been a long-standing organisation in Jamaica that supports women and women’s development, girls and girls’ development, and now health. We’re excited that we are the main beneficiary from the sponsorship, not only from Scotiabank but also from the other persons and partners out there,” she said.