Canadian Group Makes Donation to Bustamante Hospital

A cheque valued at CAN$1,000 was today (April 23) handed over to the Bustamante Hospital for Children, during a brief ceremony at the hospital’s Arthur Wint Drive location in Kingston.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Marlene Malahoo Forte, who made the presentation on behalf of Lady Bustamante Memorial Planning Committee in Canada, said the donation is a “very kind gesture” and will “go some way in making a difference.”
Committee chairperson, Mrs. Letna Allen-Rowe, explained that the body was set up after the death of Lady Gladys Bustamante last July, and the funds were the proceeds of a memorial service.
“We decided at the onset that after expenses, whatever funds we garnered, we would have donated it to the Bustamante Hospital for Children, because Lady Bustamante was indeed the patron for this hospital,” she told JIS News.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Marlene Malahoo Forte (right) is being shown a CAN$ 1,000 cheque by Chair of the Lady Bustamante Memorial Planning Committee in Canada, Letna Allen-Rowe, which the Senator later handed over to the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston. The presentation was made this morning ( April 23) during a brief ceremony held at the hospital’s Arthur Wint Drive location.

Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Ms. Beverley Needham, in expressing her gratitude, said that the money will be put to good use.
“I just want to use this opportunity on behalf of the Bustamante Hospital for Children, to thank Mrs. Letna Allen-Rowe and her associates for thinking about us and all those organisations overseas and locally that have been very generous to us in the past and I’m sure will continue to be generous to us,” she said.
Committee member, Mr. Arnold Rowe, noted that he anticipated that this donation would be the first of many.
“We intend for this to be an ongoing process. We hope that annually, we will be able to raise funds and make a similar donation in larger quantity, because we will do much more work in fund raising,” he said.
Established in 1963, the Bustamante Hospital for Children is the only paediatric hospital in the English speaking Caribbean, catering to children from birth to 12 years of age.