KINGSTON, Jamaica – From February 28th to March 14th, 2025, the Issa Trust Foundation President, Diane Pollard, will be in Jamaica with a team of doctors and nurses from Connecticut Children’s Hospital. The mission is called the Neonatal Nurses Essential Training and Skills Program. The mission will be headed by Dr. Naveed Hussain from Connecticut working along side Dr. Samantha Walker at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital.
Jamaica’s South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) will also play a vital role in the mission. The mission will help many sick and premature newborns in Jamaica. Their lives are at risk because there are not enough trained nurses. These nurses are needed to give the special care that these babies require.
The mission will focus on the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston. It is the largest maternity hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Critical Care Facilities
The program will help children from the North East and Western Regions. Severely ill newborns are often sent to Kingston. This happens because hospitals like Sav-La-Mar and St. Ann’s Bay lack critical care facilities.
Diane Pollard
Diane Pollard says, “The Issa Trust Foundation changed the landscape of neonatal care in Jamaica, by equipping St. Ann’s Bay and Annotto Bay Hospital with critical care resources and training, saving countless new born lives and lowering mortality rates by 40%.”