 Welcome to NationBeat, your daily information bulletin from the Government Information Service on what's happening around St. Lucia. I'm Richmond Felix. Here are the main stories from our team. Faced with an increasing rate of cancer, the Ministry of Health rolls out an HPV campaign. A new Caribbean short film is addressing awareness about child rights and child protection. The results of a Bilazio survey conducted among the nation's children has been released and educating St. Lucia one knapsack at a time. In keeping with changes in international oil prices and government's application of the modified market pass-through petroleum pricing mechanism, the retail price of LPG cylinders has been reduced. The retail price of kerosene, gasoline and diesel remains unchanged. The price changes take effect from today, Monday, September 17, 2018. The 20-pound LPG cylinder has decreased to £32.64. The 22-pound cylinder now retails at $36.18. The 100-pound cylinder decreased to $204.42. The retail prices of fuel products will next be adjusted on Monday, October 8, 2018. Faced with an increasing rate of cancer among the population, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is taking a collaborative approach to tackling the problem. As we hear from Anisia Antoine, expertise has been secured to assist to build capacity on the subject of cervical cancer and the role of the HPV vaccine in its prevention and control. The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization, organized a special training session to educate and sensitize healthcare workers on the human papillomavirus HPV vaccine. HPV is a virus that causes cervical cancer in women and genital warts in men and women. The HPV vaccine is part of a comprehensive program of cervical cancer prevention and control, which offers protection to individuals who have not been exposed to the virus. Many countries of the Caribbean really have a high burden of some of the cancers that are caused by the HPV or the human papillomavirus, specifically cancer of the cervix. In our region and in other developing countries, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Our countries in the Caribbean bear a high burden of cases of cervical cancer and also death from cervical cancer. The facts are that we know that the human papillomavirus is associated with this cancer and it can be prevented because a vaccine is available. And so many countries have actually been already implementing the HPV vaccine in their immunization program. The regional advisers stressed on the importance of screening women for HPV so that the virus, if detected, could be treated in its early stages. Already vaccines are offered to infants, to children, are offered to pregnant women, are offered to adult population, to the elderly, such as the influenza vaccine, tetanus, diphtheria vaccine in pregnant women. So it really is vaccination across the life course. This is a vaccine that would be offered to adolescents. Already St. Lucia offers booster doses of the diphtheria and tetanus and the polio vaccine to adolescents. And so it really is important to know that this is really just part of the comprehensive expanded program on immunization. It is offered free of cost to individuals so parents would not have to pay for the vaccine for their children. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. According to the World Health Organization, the high mortality rate from cervical cancer could be significantly reduced through comprehensive approaches such as HPV vaccines. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. A new Caribbean short film is raising awareness about child rights and child protection. The film, which was created and developed by a Dominican magistrate, will be screened here in St. Lucia. The Department of Human Services has thrown its support behind the film, urging St. Lucia to come out and view it because of its relevance to today's family setting. More from Janelle Norville. Pretending reality, a screened play by Dominican magistrate Gloria Sector Augustus. The film weighs in heavily on child protection and the rights of children. According to Augustus, this includes knowing and maintaining a relationship with their parents. She explains that throughout her experience, she has noted that when these rights are infringed upon, it can negatively impact a child. What I have found through working with children is that there are some children who do not know who their parents are and also not knowing who their parents are has implications for other things such as maintenance. For some children, it affects their behaviour and that can even have them ending up in the court system. So it has implications for juvenile justice. And also it has to do with the status of children, meaning that children have a right to be cared for by both parents irrespective of whether they're married, unmarried, divorced, inside child, outside child, however you want to call it. Due to the film's focus on child protection, the Department of Human Services will be collaborating with the Dominican magistrate in a bid to raise awareness. Director of Human Services Elizabeth Lewis expresses that some of the issues revealed in the screenplay are not unique to Dominica. What we will be seeing in this film is a situation or issues that affects not just Dominica, which is where it was filmed and developed by Magistrate Augustus but these are issues that we also face in Semmelsheer with respect to children and absentee fathers or children not knowing who their father is. As we look around Semmelsheer, we realise that a lot of our issues, a lot of the issues in fact that children come with are as a result of this poor bonding that they have with parents and in particular the fathers. A lot of fathers are away from the home and so sometimes we wonder if people understand the implications, the impact that it has on children and their development. The Ministry of Equity, Empowerment, Social Justice and Human Services is urging the public to come view the film on Saturday 22nd September 2018 at the Financial Centre from 7pm. Entry is free. From the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville. As activities continue in observance of the International Day of Democracy, the Semmelsheer Electoral Department says a concerted effort needs to be made to help the public understand its functions including the various uses of the National ID card. As part of our work plan, we had gone to most of the financial institutions, persons accessing the card, where we do presentations, we discuss which is the registration number from the NIC number and the whole security features as it relates to the ID card. Saturday 15th September was International Day of Democracy. Throughout this month, the Electoral Department will visit schools and make media appearances as part of an extensive public education campaign. For us at Electoral Department, we are always in preparation mode. And like I said earlier on, you have persons asking, what do these people do after a general election? Like I said, persons use the card for various purposes to transact business. So we have persons coming in on a daily basis between castries and viewport offices. We would receive over 100 to 200 persons on a daily basis. We have our peak season where we receive much more persons during summer time, Christmas time. And we try our best to assist everybody. This is Nation Beat. Still to come, the results of a Bilazia survey conducted among the nation's children has been released. An educating solution, one knapsack at a time. If you're HIV positive or have an STI, having unprotected sex with multiple partners puts them in grave danger. You'll expose every partner and their present and future partners to HIV or another STI. Use a condom every time you have sex. You can live a productive life even if diagnosed with HIV. Remember, early detection is key to your survival. Be responsible, protect yourself and others. Help stop the spread of HIV and other STIs. The Ministry of Health and Wellness has released the findings of a schistosomiasis or Bilazia survey conducted among children aged 8 to 11. Survey participants were selected from among 63 infant and primary schools from around the island. A total of 1,586 students aged 8 to 11 from across the island participated in a schistosomiasis or Bilazia survey in May of 2017. The Pan-American Health Organization PAHO both funded and provided technical support for the survey. Testing was done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, the University of Georgia and the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Moline Fredericks James provided an update on the findings of the survey. There were two separate occasions in October of last year and May of this year when we had to go back and retest two small groups of students to ensure the results that we had. But we are very pleased to indicate that all of the results for the students that we tested during the schistosomiasis or Bilazia survey, all of those results are negative. Which means that the children are all fine and we found no sign of Bilazia or schistosomiasis amongst the children whom we tested during the survey. Students were interviewed, blood and urine samples were taken for testing after obtaining parental consent and the appropriate research ethical approvals. The Chief Medical Officer added that in May of 2019 the Ministry of Health will undertake further surveys to establish the status of schistosomiasis in St. Lucia. Although the disease is rare, we do know that there are some adults who had contracted the disease perhaps when they were very young and who may still be infected. Given that in many cases the disease is asymptomatic and persons can have it with no sign at all for a very long time. So we'll be doing a survey among high-risk adults like persons like farmers and bookshelves and others who are usually in water or in marshy areas. We'll be doing a survey there and we'll also be going out to look for the particular snail that acts as an intermediate host for the Bilazia. She said the snails still exist in some rivers and drains on island and they will be tested for any signs of Bilazia. Dr. Frederick credits the success of this survey to the support of both parents and students who participated. The Ministries of Education and Agriculture, the Schistosomiasis Elimination Stering Committee and all who participated and supported this survey. For the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Glenn Simon reporting. Underprivileged children in various education districts will be better equipped with the necessary school supplies for the academic year as the Department of Education recently embarked on the second year of its NAFSAG drive. Honel Neptune tells us more. The NAFSAG drive, a pillar of the hashtag Educates in Lucia initiative, is aimed at ensuring that a backpack and all the supplies needed are provided to students of utmost need. A team from the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations visited the various education districts around the island delivering the NAFSAGs. Act 10 Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education Kendall Koudre says the NAFSAGs will provide students with the proper essentials to ensure a quality education. Today we are actually continuing on an initiative that was launched last year, last academic year. It's called the Educates in Lucia initiative, which seeks to provide the awareness of educational opportunities and also to provide this equitable access of quality education services to students throughout the island from the early childhood sector to the tertiary education sector. District Education Officer for District 1 Cyrus Sebal welcomed the initiative and says the NAFSAG drive will play a significant part in ensuring that students have a successful academic year. I am encouraging other persons out there or the business places or even private citizens who may have the means to get involved and see how they can help somebody in the community who may be deprived. It is not their fault that they are deprived. They may just be unfortunate that they are going through that situation. And if we can help them, we would have done something great and that will assist them in getting the right education. The backpack donated included school supplies such as notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers and more. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Fennel Neptune reporting. The Ministry of Agriculture is working to improve the production of small ruminants on the island. Increased production, the Ministry says, will provide consumers with healthier local options while boosting the income of farmers. Small ruminants in St. Lucia, we want it to be a thing that you see on the market, something that we know like our table eggs, like our poultry, like our swine, you know you're buying local products. We want to be at a point where we can say we are producing enough local goods to have a good percentage of the market share. And we're not there as yet. We need to have more farmers producing, more farmers selling. That's why we, through the IPSA fund, we're actually introducing all these new techniques and technologies and animals. So we're actually giving the farmers the tools that they need to do what they have to do. Of the small ruminants currently in production, the Ministry hopes to intensify the production of sheep and goats. We're actually sufficient on table eggs, the only time we ever do import and which is on rare occasion is for Christmas when we have a high consumption. We're very good on poultry meat and we're very good on swine. So what we're trying to do now, our next flagship commodity is the sheep and goats. We're trying to actually go into the market, get us, as you say, our foot in the door in the market for goat and sheep. The on-tap market can be easily harnessed by new farmers with minimal inputs. It's not only the big, large commercial farmers, we have backyard farmers. So once you have at least three females, you're considered a farmer. So we have a number of people with the small backyard farming where they can actually maintain a small herd of probably ten animals. It's a simple low-input venture for hopefully a high output. So there is an avenue for younger people to come into the agriculture sector. An increase in the production of local foods including meats will aid in the reduction of St. Lucia's food import bill and improve food security. That's Nation Beat for today, Monday. Join us next time as we go on the beat to fill the pulse of the nation and capture what's happening in the heart of our community. On behalf of the entire team here at the Government Information Service, I'm Richmond Felix.