When you go to the bank, you can get money out of your account, a loan, a line of credit, maybe even peace of mind...but an AIDS test!? Sounds strange, right? But that’s what the Scotiabank was doing at its Belama Branch today. It’s not part of some radical credit risk assessment, actually it’s a public service, done in tandem with the Ministry of Health. As Bank PR Josie Andrews explained, tomorrow is regional AIDS testing day in the Caribbean and Scotia Bank Belize is joining 14 other countries in providing the service to its customers.
Josie Andrews, Scotia Bank
“This is a joint effort that we’re doing and it is something that we are doing region wide. Tomorrow June 27th is actually the regional HIV/Aids testing day and Scotia Bank is an international bank and we have quite a presence within the region. Last year I believe maybe six countries throughout the Caribbean had done something very similar like this and what we’ve done is we’ve partnered up with the Ministry of Health in all these different islands and countries to really help and really to give the community an opportunity to come out and see exactly what their HIV status is.”
Ministry of Health,
“The importance of knowing your status is so that if you’re HIV negative you don’t want to be infected, you want to remain HIV negative. If you’re HIV positive then the sooner you know, the quicker you access healthcare.”
