Sat | Feb 28, 2026

Issa Trust, Direct Relief donate emergency response backpacks to WRHA

Published:Monday | October 10, 2022 | 12:06 AM
St Andrae Sinclair (left), regional director, Western Regional Health Authority, is joined by his board chairman, Eric ‘Busha’ Clarke (third left), at the handover of 20 emergency medical response backpacks by the Issa Trust Foundation, represented by
Contributed
St Andrae Sinclair (left), regional director, Western Regional Health Authority, is joined by his board chairman, Eric ‘Busha’ Clarke (third left), at the handover of 20 emergency medical response backpacks by the Issa Trust Foundation, represented by Alexandra Ghisays, group public relations director, Couples Resorts, and Gary Stephens, the hotel chain’s vice-president in charge of operations.

Health centres across the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) region will have 20 specialised emergency medical response backpacks to attend to emergency situations, which were donated by Couples Resorts’ United States-based non-profit, the Issa Trust Foundation, partnering with Direct Relief.

Accepting the donation worth $1.3 million at last Friday’s handover at Couples Negril, Eric ‘Busha’ Clarke, board chairman, WRHA, said he was thankful to Issa Trust for their continued support.

“These backpacks are an excellent idea and will serve different purposes. We figured it would be suitable to distribute them to the health centres in the four parishes – Westmoreland, Hanover, Trelawny and St James,” Clarke said in thanking Diane Pollard, president and chief executive officer, Issa Trust Foundation, who joined the handover via Zoom, along with Paul Issa, the foundation’s chairman and deputy chairman of Couples Resorts.

Each bright orange backpack contains supplies and equipment to deal with disaster-related medical issues, including infection control, diagnostics, trauma care and personal-protection tools. Direct Relief touts the backpacks as being “specially designed with input from emergency physicians and public health officials to better meet the needs of first responders, street-medicine physicians and other medical care providers”.

Clarke said the backpacks’ versatility will allow the personnel at WRHA health centres to grab one on the go, knowing its contents will be sufficient for working to not only save lives, but protect themselves while doing so.

Being waterproof, with removable pockets for ease of use, the backpacks have been approved by the office of the US Surgeon General and formally adopted as the standard to carry gear throughout California’s Emergency Medical Authority.

Gary Stephens, vice-president of operations at Couples Resorts, said it is always a pleasure for the hotel chain to partner on worthy causes.

“We hope to see a lot more donations such as this coming through,” said Stephens, echoing Issa, who described the donation as “one little step in continuation of our work with the WRHA”. The agency which was also represented by Regional Director St Andrae Sinclair; project resource mobilisation officer Elicia Whittingham, and public relations consultant Mexine Bisasor.