Barbados $20 Challenge Charity Event Raises Over $5,000 for Local Organizations

Young entrepreneurs are making a significant impact through the $20 Challenge charity event, raising more than $5 000 for several organisations.

The initiative, established in 2015 through a collaboration between Scotiabank and the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, encourages students to engage in entrepreneurship while giving back to the community.

The challenge provides students with $20 and guides them through a financial literacy programme before tasking them with creating a business. This year, 160 students from nine schools participated in the charitable initiative.

Celeste Foster, programme director of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, revealed that over $5 000 in cash and in-kind donations were given to charitable organisations through the challenge.

“Which is more than three times the loan funds invested into these students. So we had approximately 20 charitable organisations, including schools and graduating classes, that received donations today, and we had 40 student businesses making these donations,” Foster explained.

She emphasised the positive impact this initiative has on the lives of young people, seeing it as an investment that allows them to give back to the community in a meaningful way.

“The charity event is important because it shows our young people that somebody has poured into them and they now need to pour into somebody else. They’re able to do it in kind, with money, or volunteer hours. So we are not specifying which charity to give to, but they have to have a connection with the charity. They have to tell us why that charity means something to them,” she said.

Ryan Carrington, Scotiabank’s Haggatt Hall branch manager, praised the charity aspect of the $20 Challenge, highlighting its role in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and the importance of giving back to the community.

“In keeping with our commitment to developing our young people, it is also important to expose them to the benefits of giving back, as this provides a unique sense of purpose by helping others. Hence, this charity component of the $20 challenge was created in 2015 to forge a community-minded spirit in our budding entrepreneurs,” he stated.

Annie Walcott, a student from Harrison’s College, also known as the Lucky Dip Lady, created a business inspired by nostalgia for school fair lucky dips. She chose to use the profits to create care packages for the homeless.

“I chose to use the profits that I made; I would have spent $500 buying toiletries and food to put together care packages for the homeless, and I would have donated those care packages. There were 60 care packages — 29 for females and 31 for males — and I would have donated them (to the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness) in partnership with Harrison College Key Club, which I am the president of,” Walcott shared.

In addition, Walcott made donations to her alma mater, the Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School, and the graduating class of her current school.