Marlon Marquis, Chairman of the ACO, Judith M. Charles, President of the FSN, Trisha Evans from the Executive of the ACO at Ogiers. Photo: Provided

Family Support Network (FSN) is a non-profit organization whose aim is to provide support to families affected by various issues throughout the community. Following the hurricanes of September 2017, FSN was devastated. Photo: Facebook

The ACO expressed that it was pleased to make a monetary donation to the FSN to aid its efforts to assist the community.

In addition, individual members of the ACO and a number of companies contributed money, food and other supplies to the ACO for onward donation to the FSN.

The donation was made to Mrs Judith M. Charles, President of the FSN, at a small ceremony held recently at Ogier’s conference room on April 25, 2018.

“The ACO would like to thank its members and companies, including Ogier, Coverdale and Sterling Group for contributing to this worthy cause,” the association said.

According to the association, in spite of the devastation and aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria, it is pleased that it continued providing support, guidance and training to Compliance Officers, Money Laundering Reporting Officers and other professionals in the territory.

ACO remained resolute in their duty

Meanwhile, ACO mentioned that, during its first meeting of 2018 members of the ACO had a chance to meet and greet fellow members, share Irma stories, discussed the resilience of the financial services sector, and how quickly compliance professionals were back at their desks promoting a culture of compliance within the jurisdiction.

Despite their personal challenges resulting from two category 5 hurricanes, members of the ACO remained resolute in their duty to contribute to the reputation of the Virgin Islands as a highly attractive and well-regulated international financial centre where all clients are identified and verified.

Residents praise FSN

Meanwhile, residents speaking to our newsroom expressed the same sentiments, that FSN has been here for the community when they need it, while also mentioning that it needs all the support it can get to continue doing its work.

According to Sharon C. Smith, "FSN has played a big role in the community and I know a lot of families they helped after the hurricane. Just want to say keep up the good work."

"They doing amazing work especially after the hurricane but I want to say most of all that the corporate businesses should continue to help them out," said another resident.

Damion F. Williams, a resident who volunteered with FSN, stated that he sometimes hear people saying that FSN is not supporting the community but indicated that a lot of times it does it anonymously.

He said, "I dislike when people say FSN not doing no work but you see some of them coming back to the same FSN they talking bad about."