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THURSDAY, 27 JULY 2023: PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – The Digicel Foundation hosted its 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 26th July 2023 at its headquarters at the Ansa Centre, Port of Spain. The AGM highlighted the major investments and key milestones of the Foundation’s 10 year anniversary during the 2022-2023 period.
Since its establishment 10 years ago, the Digicel Foundation has supported 583 development projects, impacting more than 202,000 people through investments of over US$6.5million. The AGM presented an opportunity to reflect on this momentous ‘decade of transformation’, in which the Foundation has made incredible strides in its three main focus areas of Special Needs, Community Development and Digital Citizenship.
Over the last year, the Foundation invested US$448,410 in development initiatives to commemorate its 10th anniversary in 2022. This included enhanced Extraordinary Projects Impacting Communities (EPIC) grants that went to 10 diverse and innovative community projects based across the country, such as Beausejour’s Indigenous Bakery and Community Dirt Oven and a sustainable animal rearing farm at the Tobago School for the Deaf Speech and Language Impaired.
Additionally, the Foundation’s flagship anniversary project was the establishment of state-of-the-art tech innovation labs at 10 special schools in Trinidad and Tobago. According to Digicel Foundation CEO Penny Gomez, these tech labs, equipped with virtual reality headsets, assistive devices and more, “will revolutionise the way persons with disabilities learn and how they experience the world.”
Another major achievement of the past year was the unveiling of the new Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago (SOTT) Secretariat at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, bringing completion to a goal that the Foundation set more than ten years ago when it was founded. During the AGM, the Foundation took the opportunity to present tokens of appreciation to a number of SOTT athletes in celebration of their recent achievements at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.
The AGM also incorporated an open day with pop-up booths displaying the work of the Foundation’s partner NGOs and community organisations. This allowed Digicel staff to engage with and learn more about the Foundation’s many beneficiaries. The atmosphere throughout the morning was collaborative and festive, with performances during the official AGM proceedings by some of the Foundation’s partners, including Lara Brothers parang group and violinist Anslem Walters.
