 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Novel bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The Government of St. Lucia launches a major public sensitization campaign against human trafficking. Tourism Minister Hon. Dominic Fede mingles at the Monley Bay on a mega cruise ship day and the creative mind of the young is in full bloom with a mountain of an exhibition dedicated to child authority. The Government of St. Lucia has joined the global fight against human trafficking with tangible efforts. Tuesday 22nd January 2019, the Ministry of National Security, Home Affairs and Justice in conjunction with partner agencies launched a major public sensitization campaign and Issa Antoine has the details. Human trafficking is the transportation, transfer and harbouring, or receipt of persons from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labour or sexual exploitation. St. Lucia has been placed on the Tier 2 watchlist by the US Department of State as the Government has not fully met the minimum standards for the elimination of counter trafficking but are making significant efforts to comply with those standards. To this end, the Department of Home Affairs and National Security have officially launched a counter trafficking public awareness campaign. The slogan for the public awareness campaign is know it, see it, report it. Felicia Brown, Gender Justice Advisor and Human Rights Advocate urged the Government to continue to invest in education on human trafficking. Today marks a very significant development for human rights in St. Lucia. As a development status, critical that we as a society continue to place greater emphasis on the protection of all citizens, including citizens that are persons entering our shores. Human trafficking is rapidly evolving and we've seen that based upon our research. We're also seeing that the use of technology is providing a lot more easy way for our potential as well as our perpetrators. So it's very important that we invest, our government invests in a lot in terms of our national security in those areas. Human trafficking in St. Lucia is an offence punishable by law under the Counter Trafficking Act of 2010. Perpetrators can face up to five years imprisonment or fines of up to 100,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars or both. The Minister for Home Affairs, Justice and National Security, Honourable Herman Guild Francis stated that he has been in discussion with the Attorney General to align the punishment of human trafficking with the punishment of rape and manslaughter. So we are going to be removing the fine aspect and yet you go directly to prison. In that situation we would need the concurrence of the judges and we do hope that the judges will understand the magnitude of the problem and give the sentence that is required. A national task force has been established and a number of police officers and social service agents have been trained to provide victim-centered law enforcement assistance. Resident British Commissioner Steve McCready announced that next month a member of the UK's Immigration Enforcement International will be providing human trafficking and immigration training to St. Lucia Immigration and Law Enforcement personnel. All of this really demonstrates that our countries share not just the same policy objectives but that we're actually very practically committed to working together to tackle human trafficking in all its forms. From day one here I've said I think one of the most important parts of my role is to highlight and support and encourage areas where the UK and St. Lucia can work closely together. And I think today and this initiative and this work I think it's a great example of that happening. The Department of Home Affairs and National Security urges the public to call 847 or go to the nearest police station if there are any suspicions of trafficking. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. Podcastries continues to be a hub of activity with cruise ships by the numbers. And the Islands of Minister for Tourism says this is just the beginning of what can be achieved in the industry. He made the comment as he visited the Monlay Bay, one of the busiest stopping points for visitors as they tour the island. It was a busy day at Podcastries as five cruise ships slid into their boats in spots, carrying with them approximately 9,000 passengers to the island shores. It is against that backdrop that Minister for Tourism Honourable Dominic Fede paid a visit to the Monlay Bay to see first hand the interaction between the tourism vendors and visitors, herring visitors' impressions of St. Lucia as well as the concerns and expectations of the vendors. For the tourism minister, one need was clear. The soaring numbers in cruise arrivals must translate into revenue across the board. The trickle-down effect of tourism, he says, is paramount in order to realise the economic impact the sector is capable of generating. As such, Government has committed resources to ensure that players in the sector are empowered to reap the benefits. Among efforts already underway is the training of vendors. We've already trained 200 of them in various techniques, some of them are here. More or less what we're saying to them is to think outside the box, to try different things, to do different things. It's to excite the cruise passenger in a different way and to showcase St. Lucia with different products and different experiences and different flavours and different beverages. So it's very good to see that some of them are putting the training into practice. The Ministry of Tourism has declared 2019 the year of revenue for the sector. The private sector, investors, entrepreneurs, artisans and the youth will be engaged and mobilised to take advantage of opportunities in tourism. Government under a World Bank project is investing $40 million over a six-year period to shore up the island's competitiveness as a tourism destination. Minister Fede says gaps that currently exist must be closed. When we look at the facade of castries and we look at the state of the market and we look at customer service experiences, we look at safety and security issues and so on. A very comprehensive and holistic approach is being employed to make sure that we create the best-enabling environment for cruise tourism and land-based tourism and yachting tourism. All of them to thrive. All of them to yield more economic and social benefits to the people of St. Lucia. The vendors, pleased with the Minister's visit, expressed satisfaction with the positive signs in the cruise tourism business. However, they requested that the Minister look into proper roofing for the more nearby. A request the Minister assured would be met. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Efforts to continue developing a framework to overcome HIV, TB and STIs as a public health threat by 2022 is underway as OECS Regional Coordinating Mechanism RECM and Global Fund met recently. More from Fennel Neptune. The OECS RECM is making preparations to sign another three-year grant proposal with Global Fund, aimed at eliminating HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections, STIs. The project will operate in six participating OECS Member States, that is St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada. Project coordinator for the OECS HIV-TB grant, Dr. Cleopas Dovey, highlighted the goals of this project. The major goals of the grant are one, to reduce the incidence of HIV in line with the 1990-1990 targets and also move towards TB elimination using the framework for low incidence countries because the OECS countries are low incidence countries. That's the first goal. The second goal is for us trying to improve services for key populations for HIV, TB and STIs and ensuring that these services are accessible and affordable. Minister for Health and Wellness, Senator the Honourable Mary Isaac says this project is extremely important to St. Lucia as it addresses a critical need for persons with HIV, TB and STIs. This grant is aimed at assisting persons living with HIV as well as TB and other STIs. This is a population that usually we don't remember they exist but they are quite challenged in that there's a lot of stigma attached to these people. Funding like that comes at a time when it is really extremely critical that these people get the funding so that they can purchase their medication and other health issues that they may have, they can take care of it through those funds. This project is to be co-founded by the Global Fund to the tune of over US $5.5 million for the period April 2019 to April 2022. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness I am Fynon Neptune. This is Nation Beat We're Back in a Moment. I have my mobile, landline, cable TV and internet service. If I have a problem with any of the services, what should I do? Here's what you should do to resolve the problem. First, get and fill out a complaint form and lodge your complaint with the service provider. If after 30 days there is still no solution you may contact your National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, NTRC. This message is brought to you as a public service announcement by Ectel, the NTRC and this station. Welcome back. The creative mind of the young is in full bloom with the mountain of an exhibition dedicated to child offers. The Caribbean Book Fair 2019 was launched under the theme Reading Grows the Imagination and is dedicated to child offers in St. Lucia. The book fair according to coordinator Barbara Jacobs Small will run from the 21st to the 31st of January 2019. During this time various schools will visit the exhibition where child offers will be on hand to read their books to the youngsters. We have a growing population of young people who are writing and who are publishing and that needs to be celebrated. I think that is perhaps one of the best forms of evidence of the creative richness of St. Lucia. That St. Lucia is a land of very, very creative people. It's a land that has in fact produced a Nobel Prize winner for literature. And I believe that perhaps children more than anybody else can inspire children. A number of authors were present to share their inspiration and excerpts from the books including children's author Nadella Carrasco Bailey. How would you like to grow so tall that no one could look in your eyes at all? How would you like to grow so thin that you were only the width of a pin? How would you like to grow so round that you would weigh 500 pounds? How would you like to stand up and say I'm glad I'm just myself today? So this is for Primary School. Former director of the National Emergency Management Organization, Nemo and offered on French shared her inspiration for her book. And we fast forward to 2016 where I took part in a creative writing course run by the University of the West Indies Open Campus sponsored by the Canadian government. It was a six-week program and it was two weeks on prose, two weeks on poetry and two weeks on playwriting. And I really signed up because I wanted to understand the playwriting. But the first assignment was the prose and we had to write a short story and all who surprised raised their hand, Dawn wrote the story, Pinot and the Storm, okay? Because I'm still into my disaster management mode and I wrote the story about this little eight-year-old and the storm is coming and how do we prepare for a storm? Because I'm targeting, because as the director, Nemo, I realized there was a lot of material for children. There was a lot for adults, there's a lot for scientists, but there wasn't really much for children and so I wrote that to explain to children what the storm was and to make them understand what it need, what is necessary to get prepared for the hazard. The book fair is being held at the Gable Woods Food Court, San Iacres and forms part of the calendar of events for the Nobel Laureate Festival 2019. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norvell.