The Worshipful Company of Actuaries invites applications for the Phiatus Award. This blog explores why the award is integral to the recognition of not only fundraising but all forms of charitable work and activity.
It’s that time of year when the Worshipful Company of Actuaries invites applications for the Phiatus Award.
Each year the award is presented to an actuary who has made an impressive contribution to charity, not simply for fundraising but in recognition of all forms of charitable work and activity. The prize is a donation of £5,000 to the ACTUARIES winner’s chosen charity.
The 2022 recipient of the Phiatus Award was Saida Chakkor, who works in general insurance in London and is a member of the IFoA and the Spanish Institute of Actuaries, for her outstanding contribution to the Luton Council of Faiths (LCoF).
The Phiatus Award donation has helped the LCoF with various projects this year. One project currently running has enabled a panel of faith leaders to go into 12 primary schools to engage in dialogue with the pupils about how they can live together with respect and work for the common good. This is an example of a Spanish actuary supporting a British charity.
One such winner was Robert Ross, who raised funds for the rebuilding of a village of over 300 people in the Langtang Valley of Nepal. While on a mountaineering trip to Everest in 2015, the village was swept away by avalanches, which Robert managed to escape. The village has now been rebuilt with new schools and health posts, and Langtang is once again able to welcome the trekkers who are so important to its livelihood.
A previous winner is the US-based actuary Mike McLaughlin, whose Trees That Feed Foundation has fed populations, created jobs, and benefitted the environment in the Caribbean, Central America, and Africa, all of this based initially on the breadfruit tree.
So if you are an actuary who has made an impressive contribution to charity through your active involvement, or would like to nominate an actuary who has done so, please email Ian Farr, Liveryman and Trustee of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries Charity, at ianafarr@gmail.com, who will advise you on the application process.
As the deadline for entries is 31 October 2023, now is a good time to get in touch.
And if you’re wondering how the Phiatus Award gets its unusual name then take a read of our blog from last year.
