RESEARCH & INNOVATION
T he foundation was named Barbados where he served in the fields of medicine, politics, and health and education. “I am humbled to join the pantheon of awardees in the Master of Public Health programme, including Dr. Subira Franklin, a dear friend and brilliant mind lost too soon.” As he thanked his student peers, after Sir Arnott Cato, the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines native who relocated to parents and others for their support, the awardee explained that he was inspired to pursue a career that combined his passion for health interventions and the arts while he attended Harrison College . “In my experience, public health is a discipline that celebrates this union. Our mission as public health practitioners is not merely to heal the sick but to create new and innovative ways for people to thrive. Indeed, we must be bold in proactively creating health-promoting environments that encourage and facilitate healthy lives and livelihoods.” NCDs remain one of the most significant developmental challenges for Caribbean countries like Barbados. Currently, 31 per cent of the children residing in the state are overweight or obese, 66 per cent of adults are overweight and another 33 per cent are obese, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) has stated. The young researcher explained that he worked alongside the non-governmental HSFB and Healthy Caribbean Coalition on childhood obesity prevention for almost five years. As a youth coordinator, he said he focused on building a team of young advocates who championed various community outreach activities for health promotion and digital advocacy campaigns. Programme Coordinator of the MPH and Lecturer in Public Health and Epidemiology Dr. Heather Harewood said, like Laurie, other people continue to show interest
in the public health discipline post the COVID-19 pandemic. “The MPH focuses on equipping persons with the knowledge and skills required to provide leadership and effective management within health and allied sectors and disciplines, regionally and beyond. “A strength of our MPH is its integrated delivery which [allows] students to benefit from interaction with technical experts from the Ministry of Health, the George Alleyne Chronic Diseases Research Centre, as well as other regional and global academic partners, many of whom are adjunct faculty. These opportunities, along with selected field trips and directed activities, have equipped our graduates with the needed authentic exposures to enhance their ability to integrate into various workplaces and fields of interest.” Some past scholarship recipients have gone on to make contributions in the areas of breast cancer research among women of the African diaspora, and food and nutrition. u
Christopher Laurie (centre) receives the Cato Burton Foundation/City of Bridgetown Credit Union Scholarship from Vice-President of COB Steve Jemmott (left) and Dr. Clyde Cave , Board Trustee of the Cato Burton Foundation (right).
CHILL NEWS 69
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