CCRP’s 15th Anniversary

Jean Lowrie-Chin

On Sunday, 20^th April the seniors advocacy organization CCRP (Caribbean Community of Retired Persons) will celebrate our 15^th Anniversary. After the 30th Anniversary of our company, PROComm in 2009, I considered who had helped me along my journey and realized they were seniors including my Mother Maisie Lowrie who was our first investor and supported us throughout the years. In gratitude, I decided that I would start an organization to advocate for our underserved seniors.

Our initial collaborators were my husband Hubie Chin, Ambassador Aloun Assamba who donated all the legal work, registering the organization and preparing our Articles of Incorporation; J. Lester Spaulding, late Chair of the RJR Gleaner Group who set up our accounting system, Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, our Honorary Director and Professor Denise Eldemire Shearer, our Honorary Chair. We thank our Patron Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and Lady Allen for hosting our first media event at which the late Hon Oliver Clarke registered to be our first member – now we are over 12,000 members strong.

We are blessed with excellent Board Directors: Vilma McDonald, Director Emerita Ambassador Aloun Assamba, Patricia Reid-Waugh, Marlene Street Forrest, Dr Owen James,  Dennis Jones, Sethuraman Kumaraswamy, Warren McDonald, Peter Mais and Donovan Wignal. We recently appointed Angela Patterson as our General Manager, supported by the PROComm Team.

CCRP’s voluntary regional convenors are Patricia Blackwood – Central Jamaica; Dr Norma Taylor – Western Jamaica; and Pixley Irons, Northeast Jamaica. Our Caring Committee Chair is Moveta Munroe; former chairs are Irene Walter and Verla Seymour. The Committee comprises our parish representatives, who assist in our outreach to the needy elderly. Our excursions planned by Charmaine Harrison are hugely popular – they help our members in the words of our motto to live ‘Life to the Fullest’.

We thank our over 100 discount partners and top sponsors JNGI, National Baking, BPM Financial, Juici Jamaica, Supreme Ventures, Cari-Med Group, Sandals Group, Sterling Asset Management, WIHCON, Sagicor, Gallagher Insurance Brokers, managers of CCRP health plans and Morgan White Insurance.

We congratulate Senator Floyd Morris and Senator Sherene Golding-Campbell for taking the Motion for Legislation for the Care and Protection of the Elderly to an active Special Select Committee of Parliament which has been holding hearings on the matter. CCRP has made a comprehensive submission to the Committee, and we are optimistic that this Legislation will soon become a reality.

^{Source: Jamaica Observer}