BY SHEENA FORDE-CRAIGG | SEP 30, 2022
PAHO/WHO’s new Representative, Amalia Del Riego Abreu, presents her credentials to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott, at the Ministry’s headquarters, Culloden Road, St. Michael, recently. (S. Forde-Craigg/BGIS)
The “valuable, intimate and very involved” partnership between Barbados and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO), will continue.
This was agreed upon today when PAHO/WHO’s new Representative, Amalia Del Riego Abreu, presented credentials to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott, at the Ministry’s headquarters, Culloden Road, St. Michael.
Minister Walcott conveyed Barbados’ appreciation to the PAHO/WHO Representative for the support and assistance provided during the onset and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for its technical assistance over the years.
He noted that Barbados had “benefitted tremendously” from its relationship with PAHO over the years and stressed the island looked forward to the continued support of the PAHO/WHO office in Barbados.
In response, Dr. Del Riego stated: “…It’s our job to do it. We are the Secretariat to support member states, but at the end of the day, PAHO is the member state. When there is a good relationship between the Secretariat and the member states and the government [that] is what I call PAHO at its best.”
The new PAHO/WHO Representative is a medical doctor and has over 25 years of national and international experience in public health, the integration of priority health programmes and the strengthening of health systems and services.
The two officials conversed on matters including environmental health, chronic diseases, non-communicable diseases, mental health, immunisation rates for children, front-of-package labelling and climate change with regards to the increase in vector control issues.
The Dominican Republic national, Dr. Del Riego, was appointed to the PAHO/WHO post on July 29, and in addition to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean is accredited to the United Kingdom overseas territories, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat as well as the French departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana.
Also present at the meeting were Permanent Secretary, Simone Rudder; Foreign Service Officer, Nicole Parris; PAHO’s Executive Assistant, Beatrice McCarthy and PAHO’s Information System Specialist & Communications Focal Point, Brenda Lashley.
Barbados joined the Pan American Health Organization in 1967.
