MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of the Sandals Foundation and CEO of Sandals Resorts Adam Stewart is confident that the Foundation will make an even more significant impact in its growth before 2020.

“We believe our foundation will be in the top three largest in the Caribbean within the next three years,” a confident Stewart expressed.

He was speaking on Friday during the second day of the three-day Nexus Caribbean Conference at the Half Moon Hotel in Rose Hall, St James.

Sandals Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resort, which was founded in March 18, 2009, has since sourced US$17 million in cash and kind, which has contributed to the sustenance of over 300 charity programmes in nine Caribbean destinations.

“We have been able to bring in US$5 million in cash and an additional US$12 million in kind. I just wanted to tell you we have successfully implemented and are running over 300 programmes across the Caribbean,” Stewart said.

Meanwhile, according to highlights from a recent report from the charity organisation it supports 55 schools in the Caribbean, has awarded 136 scholarships, provided training for 946 teachers, constructed 63 computer labs and brought health care to over 155,000 people.

The report also spoke to the Foundation’s launch of an early childhood education initiative, Project Sprout; its partnership with organisations such the SickKids Foundation, Hands Across The Sea, and the Providing Access to Continued Education Programme (PACE), and its environmental efforts such as Marine Awareness Month and the preservation of the Grenada Dove.

The, CEO of the Sandals chain, which employs over 13,000 people in nine Caribbean countries, argued that the first step that nationals need to take towards resolving problems plaguing the region, is not to shy away from conceding that they exist.

He further noted that the Foundation, which was built on the three pillars of community, education and environment, was a result of its responsibility to assist in finding a solution. He cited education among the most severe regional problem.

“And the root cause in any Caribbean country — and we are in nine of them — the bottom line is all the same… is a grave lack of education. When you dig down into the lowest denominator, its a lack of education and what we are trying to do is not create a space for ourselves, but fill a void. We have issues and we have a duty to fix them,” Stewart said.

“When we set up our foundation, we said what’s important, community, education and environment. Those are the three pillars we built into our bylaws that we are going to focus and pay attention to,” he went on.

The Nexus Caribbean Youth Summit was hosted by the RMP Foundation in partnership with the Jamaica Tourist Board, the Sandals Foundation and the MapeX Foundation.

Nexus members and guests from around the world gathered explore the Caribbean’s most pertinent social issues, seeking to create and discover innovative pathways for change and explore effective ways to collaborate for greater impact.

“Nexus Caribbean is part of Nexus Global, which is an organisation that brings together communities of wealth with philanthropists and social entrepreneurs to help solve the world’s problems,” Zachary Harding, co-chairman Nexus Caribbean, told the Jamaica Observer.