The board of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) is pleased to announce that Leo Casimir is the 2013 winner of the Juanita Altenberg Award for Excellence.
Casimir is a Caricom project coordinator with the Regional Global Fund Grant.
In making the award, CVC Board Co-Chair Donna DaCosta-Martinez said Casimir is to be lauded for being instrumental in mobilising civil society’s involvement in Global Fund processes.
“He has taken very seriously and executed very well the mandate to ensure that the civil society sector maximises access to the available resources of the Global Fund in the region,” she said.
She pointed out that it was in recognition of the invaluable partnership between civil society organisations and inter-governmental agencies that the decision was made on this occasion to honour Casimir.
“CVC recognises that because of his personal commitment and passion to these successful partnerships, the capacity of civil society organisations in the region has been enhanced,” she said.
In accepting the award, Casimir said any success must be credited to all members of his team.
He thanked CVC for its regional work and for being strident in representing the voices of vulnerable communities throughout the region.
The Juanita Altenberg Award is named in honour of CVC’s founding co-chair, the late Juanita Altenberg, who for decades advocated for the rights of vulnerable communities not only in her home country of Suriname, but throughout the Caribbean.
The inaugural award was presented to Suzette Moses-Burton of St. Maarten in 2009 for her work with the community of persons living with HIV. The next was presented to Miriam Edwards of Guyana in 2010 for her work with sex workers. In 2011, the next award was presented posthumously to CVC Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr. Robert Carr for his internationally recognised work with vulnerable communities.