The International Black Women’s Public Policy Institute (IBWPPI) is making an impact on black women and their families all over the world, including The Bahamas.
IBWPPI is the only global public policy institute dedicated to, founded by, and led by Black women. It is governed by 18 women representing six countries and 11 major cities across the United States, and is founded on policy, humanitarian, and philanthropic principles. Hailing from The Bahamas, Director of Global Engagement and Protocol Coralie Adderley is making a mark in global healthcare through IBWPPI.
In her most recent assignment, Adderley is leading the team establishing a birthing clinic that will reach thousands of women in Selma, Alabama. This clinic will provide a critical service to an area where 42 counties have no prenatal services, and where the maternal mortality rate of black women is 50 percent higher.
IBWPPI will launch the Alabama clinic, patterned after the group’s first birthing clinic, successfully operating in Feyasi, Ghana, Africa. For the past three years, IBWPPI has worked with women in The Bahamas. Belize, Ghana, Haiti and the United States to establish meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships. They have launched projects in Kumasi, with Bridge to Africa Connection Inc., adopted schools and even a village. These projects are saving lives and providing opportunities for women and girls that are life-changing.
In The Bahamas, IBWPPI established a reading room at the Lillian G. Weir Library on Blue Hill Road. And this summer, the organization hopes to sponsor a summer reading program in partnership with the Lillian G. Weir Library that kids in the area look forward to attending. This program, Adderley said, will build self-confidence and boost morale, with “wonderful incentives for the kids”.
“The purpose of IBWPPI’s Reading Room Programme is to create a literacy enriched environment for youth of all ages to develop their reading skills, with an aim at combating literacy,” Adderley said.
“The program is dedicated to promoting leisure reading as a key to unlocking a youth’s full potential.”
IBWPPI’s Boots on the Ground Programme has also touched The Bahamas. Launched in 2010 following the devastating earthquake that rocked the country of Haiti and claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people, Boots on the Ground continues to touch lives and make a difference.
“Through this program, we assisted 57 families post-Hurricane Dorian in the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama,” Adderley explained.
“We provided emergency survival kits, heavy duty boots, medical supplies, and $36,000 in cash and gift certificates to families as they grappled to put back together the pieces of their lives.”
Adderley has served as the chief hospital administrator of the Princess Margaret Hospital; chief operating officer, then senior vice president of Doctors Hospital Health System; and she is presently the managing director of the Kidney Centre Ltd. She founded the international management consulting firm, Creative Leadership & Management Solutions (CLMS) in 2012, and serves as chief executive officer and senior consultant. Adderley and her husband, Ethan Adderley, a realtor, are co-owners of Sweet Slivas Sorbet organic sorbet boutique company and CLK Nubian Couture clothing company.
Adderley holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health services administration. She is a certified healthcare executive, and a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is a national and civic contributor, having served as chairperson of the National Women’s Advisory Council (NWAC), and being the founder and president of New P31 Ladies to support mentorship of professional women. Adderley currently serves as a director on the board of the IBWPPI with responsibility for global engagement and protocol, and on the board of governors for The Embassy International.