COK employees awarded Joe Biden bursaries
TWO EMPLOYEES of COK Sodality Credit Union have become the first Caribbean recipients of bursaries awarded by the London-based International Credit Union Leadership Development & Education Foundation (ICULDEF).
The two are COK’s financial business analyst Patrice Thomas-Hinds and senior pensions coordinator Jacqueline Simpson.
The ICULDEF bursaries form part of the Joe Biden Awards for Development Educator of the Year for Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Caribbean and Europe. Biden served as vicepresident of the United States under the Obama administration.
The bursaries are awarded to outstanding credit union employees to attend a five-day residential development educator course, where they are immersed in the history, philosophy and corporate governance of the worldwide credit union movement.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
During the process, the employees acquire new managerial and operational skills and undergo personal development. On graduation, ICULDEF bursary recipients are known as Pell Scholars.
The two COK employees have qualified as the first Pell Scholars from the Caribbean, having attended the Caribbean Credit Union Development Training Programme, held recently in Jamaica. They have also been designated Graduate Caribbean Development Educators and will undertake projects to mobilise communities for the common good. COK’s Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador Aloun NdombetAssamba, serves as postgraduate project mentor.
At the COK’s members meeting, held at the Holy Cross Church Hall on Wednesday March 22, the credit union’s president, Steadman Pitterson, presented Thomas-Hinds and Simpson with citations on behalf of the ICULDEF trustees. The members’ meeting was the fifth in a series to mark COK’s 50th anniversary.