 Hello, this is Nation Beat, I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The Department of Health and Wellness addresses concerns surrounding the transitioning of staff to the Millennium Medical Complex. A concerted effort is underway by the Government of St. Lucia to ensure that projects embarked upon are achieved with greater efficiency. St. Lucia is interested in the hospitality sector and encouraged to take advantage of a new NAP initiative and count in the spin-off benefits of the Roots and Soul Festival. Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Wellness, Felix St. Hill, has cleared the air on a number of issues that have surfaced with regard to the transitioning of staff to the Millennium Heights Medical Complex. In a statement, St. Hill said these issues seem to undermine the efforts of the Department of Health and Wellness to advance or improve the provision of services within the health sector. Let me reassure all staff members of the three institutions which comprise the Millennium Heights Medical Complex, namely the Victoria Hospital which has been transitioned into the OKEU Hospital, the National Mental Wellness Centre and the Turning Point Rehabilitation Centre, that I have no directive to any of our staff members to resign depositions in order to facilitate applications to the new statutory organisation. In fact, often times the policymakers have tried to reassure staff members of the security of tenure and the fact that no one will be losing their jobs as a result of our commissioning efforts. As the administrative head of the Department of Health and Wellness, administrative directives which are issued to staff and management come under my purview and no other office. The issue of reapplication for any position at the Millennium Heights Medical Complex bears weight if the consideration of a public-private partnership is being explored and would be determined by the conditions agreed to in the public-private partnership. So there is nothing definite about reapplication for any jobs. It may be one of several options if at all we have to pursue transition in all staff to the Millennium Heights Medical Complex. A concerted effort is underway by the Government of St Lucia to ensure that projects embarked upon are achieved with greater efficiency and benefits to the people. The thrust is in keeping with the decision by the Caricum Secretariat to implement a results-based management RBM system to arrest the long-standing issues that have plagued the efficiency of the organisation and its agencies. The RBM system is a framework that guides the execution of programmes through sustained monitoring, reporting and accountability. The Ministry of Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation is preparing to introduce a delivery unit that will be tasked to accomplish the goal. The Caricum Results-Based Management RBM system is expected to benefit member states significantly. According to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Development Philip Dalso, St Lucia is looking to take advantage of the system. He explained that other measures will be taken to ensure a smooth implementation. The Permanent Secretary added that St Lucia is currently in discussions with the Caribbean Development Bank, CDB, to assist in this venture. We are actually in discussions with CDB to help in developing what we call a delivery unit, which would help us in developing that results-oriented framework. At the level of the public service, where I used to be the PS of public service, job descriptions are also being developed with a sort of results-orientation framework, performance-orientation framework. So that would align much more closely with the performance appraisal and development instruments. So when you look at a job description now, it's really results-based. The Permanent Secretary also highlighted the importance of the implementation of the results-based management system. Dalso explained that member states are tasked with a number of responsibilities, and with the new system in place, assessments can be conducted. The resulting reports will then be made available to stakeholders. We can see when the reports are prepared, where the bottlenecks are, who is falling short, and what do we need to do, what interventions we need to take to improve or remove those bottlenecks. So, yes, there are elements of RBM that have been introduced in St. Lucia, and we are also looking forward to working with the Secretariat so that we can help to improve the implementation rate as it relates to the regional development agenda. A big part of the implementation of the RBM system is sensitization. While a concerted effort is being made to sensitize stakeholders in St. Lucia, Dalso opined that there is still a lot of groundwork to be done. Thousands of students are back in the classroom as a new academic year opened Monday. The Minister for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development personally welcomed students in a visit to several schools. More in this report. The annual allocation of just over $1 million for the repair of schools on the island for years have proven insufficient to alleviate the infrastructural issues of the large number of schools which require repair. As such, this year, government invested 10 times the usual amount to ensure the comfort of students and teachers alike ahead of the reopening of school. Minister with Responsibility for Education, Honorable Dr. Gail Rigabet, says while there is still work to be done, the $10 million allocated has been stretched well in improving 80% of structural issues in schools. Let me thank everyone who has been involved in delivering this rehabilitation program. I think across the island, the students and teachers are reasonably pleased. Admittedly, and I've said it before, $10 million only represents a quarter of what it is estimated that we would need to bring every school on island to an acceptable standard. But that injection of $10 million, of course, has gone a long way to bring some relief to our teachers and our students. One school in particular, the Miku Primary School, encountered some issues with lingering pain fumes in a few classrooms and caused some parents to express their concern and even pulled their children out of school. However, school principal Fern Donnelly says remedial arrangements have been sought to house affected students. I want to categorically say we will not be housing the students in the classrooms upstairs where the parents were concerned, in which the parents were concerned about. We will ensure that no student is allowed on that block from tomorrow. We had works done on most of our blocks. We have four blocks in total and three of these are totally refurbished from the inside to the outside. We have freshly painted walls. We have new ceilings. We have new light bulbs. Electrical works were done. We have new furniture. We have a brand new school and for this we are very grateful. The Education Minister, as has been her custom on the first day of class, visited several schools to witness first hand. The work accomplished and took great teachers and students wishing them well in the new academic year. She addressed the assembly of the grossly secondary, noting the school's recent successes in CXC-CSEC and its elevation to a center of excellence for sports. We remain committed to ensuring that all our graduates are exposed to some core subjects, but that they also have the option of pursuing certain subject areas, be it in the area of sport, in the case of grossly secondary school, and with respect to the Archer Secondary School in the area of creative arts and culture. The Minister says the remaining work on schools will be accomplished, utilizing weekends and the upcoming Christmas break. She expressed her satisfaction with her tour of schools and disclosed that Monday's meeting of Cabinet ministers was suspended to allow Cabinet MPs a chance to visit schools within their districts. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Chris Satney reporting. St. Lucian's, with an interest in the hospitality sector, are being targeted through an initiative spearheaded by the National Apprenticeship Program in conjunction with Monroe College. We get the details from Geraldine B.Sett-Joseph. The National Apprenticeship Program, NAP, continues to bring employment to St. Lucian's in the South. The National Apprenticeship Program was established in February 2018. The program was implemented due to the high levels of unemployment in the South amongst the youth. The initiative works by identifying the personal problems faced by those who are unemployed. Once these are established, the program works alongside private organizations and individuals to place those seeking employment within vacant posts where qualifications, personality and experience fit the criteria. The organization also works at developing the skills of the youth, allowing their potential to develop. NAP's latest venture includes a qualification and skills-based collaboration with Monroe College. Our other mandate has been to provide training in the field of hospitality. And we do appreciate that with the hotels that are on stream to be set up, to be developed in the South of the island, there will be a demand for persons. And so presently we are conducting some interviews with Monroe College. And I need to say that when we advertised this training opportunity, within two weeks we had more than 100 persons coming in to register. And Monroe has asked us for about 160 persons for the first semester to start off with. And we registered over 200 persons. And 200 persons are now being interviewed over a period of three days to start off training in hospitality. And this training will prepare them for work, not just within the local tourist industry, the hotels, but also for the cruise ship sector. We are looking at providing training for the cruise ship sector. And what we are doing at the National Apprenticeship Program to facilitate this is to provide the support to those individuals so that they can access the funds to pay for this training. Those who make the cut will be lucky enough to benefit from the funding process established by the St. Lucia Development Bank. Every individual who's accepted will be able to access the funding from SLDB to pay for this training. But the interesting thing about it is that they do not have to pay back the full amount. The government will provide part of this fund as a grant to those individuals. So they would only have to pay back a portion of it. But additionally, during the three months of training, we understand that these are persons who are unemployed and they have very little resources. And so we are also providing them with a monthly stipend to meet the cost of transportation, to meet the cost of food, and to assist them in getting themselves certified. For the government information service, I am Jolene B. Setjoseph reporting. The Ancelore Canaries constituency recently hosted its first youth and sports conference. The conference was aimed at not only inspiring the youth of the district, but also to give some indication of the avenues that can be taken for each individual to reach and obtain their goals. Organisers of the event, the Department of Youth Development and Sports brought together members from a variety of local clubs and organisations in an effort to give them a platform for expression during the event. The participants were encouraged to come together with the intention of bringing about a better tomorrow for all constituency youth. It has always been, will always be a challenge for young persons in any community because there are so many problems and issues that we have. But the good thing about problems and issues is that they can be solved. And I want to invite you today to take this programme very seriously and to start a journey of development, to start a journey of ensuring that whatever issues that we have that we can overcome them. National Youth Council President Jester and Andrew addressed the crowd by reiterating the message of working and building together. He encouraged attendees not to be afraid to speak out and make a difference. As young people, we need to be able to motivate ourselves. Self-motivation is something that is very important and if we can achieve that then we can always motivate those around us to propel themselves to achieving their dreams and their goals. The National Youth Council would like to wholeheartedly support this initiative, this programme. And we hope that the young people can voice their opinions, their concerns. Sometimes you may sit in your part of the community and you may have brilliant ideas, you may have things that you think can work and you don't get the opportunity to voice those concerns, those ideas in a setting where persons can come together and try to put together programmes. So today I would like to encourage every one of you to not be shy, but if there's something that you think can work in your community, whether it be more on the spot side of things or whether it be directed to youth development that you express yourself today and share and use all of the information that you have to put together programmes that will be beneficial to the young people in your community. By sharing a personal story which related directly to the event, Parliamentary Representative for Ancillary Canaries, the Honourable Dominic Fede, urged the youth to be inspired and act now. My younger brother Sergio who played for the Windwards, I used to say to him that if you want to be an exceptional sportsman, you can't live an average life. You can't be like the other kids. Your time of going to bed cannot be the same time as the other kids. Your time to get up, to go on train cannot be like the other kids. Your diet cannot be like the other kids. Your lifestyle cannot be like the other kids. Those sacrifices must be made. You know, the lifespan of a sportsman is so narrow, very, very short. And usually it's at the peak here between 17, 28. That's a very, very short window of your life. And you know, when you pass that 28 threshold and you started to get to the 30 mark, you know that you're going down here. And so it is important to maximize the moment in your prime of fitness, in your prime of youth, in your prime of energy to make sure that you have the very, very best career. Representatives from the Department of Youth Development and Sports went on to say that the nation's youth are seen as those at the forefront of change and innovation with the spirit to make things happen. This is Nation Beat. Coming up next, the spin-off benefits of the Roots and Soul Festival. Did you know that one pint of blood can save up to three lives? Did you know that it is safe to give blood even if you have a tattoo? Did you know that the average patient uses two pints of blood? Did you know that giving blood can reduce your risk of cardiovascular diseases? Blood connects us all. Share life, give blood. For further information, you can contact the St. Lucia Blood Bank Service at 4525430. Email us at slubloodbank at gmail.com. Save a life, give blood. Children who eat unhealthily are more likely to become obese by the age of 14, suffering from type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and certain forms of cancer. Be aware of what your child eats and what they do throughout the day. This message is brought to you by the Belize Cancer Society, Healthy Caribbean Coalition, Childhood Obesity Prevention Alliance Belize and the Office of the Special Envoy for Women and Children. Just days after the curtains came down on the second installment of the Roots and Soul Festival, officials are assessing the benefits of the event to people. As we hear in this report by Anissia Antoine, local artists are increasingly sharing the main stage spotlight, along with due earnings. The Roots and Soul Festival is the third event classified under the St. Lucia Solle Summer Festival. The event, which took place at the Pigeon Island National Landmark over the weekend, welcomed hundreds of individuals who enjoyed a cultural-infused liner. In a post-briefing with the Minister for Local Government and Culture, she stated that the inclusion of more local artists and vendors allowed the economic benefits to be felt throughout the length and breadth of the island. We were heartened at the fact that we had a number of local artists who were able to perform and to be of international standard. We had Stacy Charles, Shane Ross, who performed on stage, Michelle Obertin, and also Tajwiks, who were locals, who were part of this cast of international artists that we had performing for us. And what we've always wanted, you know, as a country, is to ensure that our artists are given center stage at many events in St. Lucia. So we're able to achieve that, and I think that will continue to grow within the plans for, as we look to expand our festival. We also looked at the whole question of the opportunity for persons to participate in vending and selling St. Lucia craft and arts. And so all of these things are the type of things that we would want to continue to happen during our festival. According to the Minister, there was a large influx of persons who came to St. Lucia to be a part of the Solei Summer Festival with most hotels recording high occupancy rates. She highlighted the significance of the various summer festivals given that the lowest arrival rates are usually recorded during the summer season. What we wanted to was to deliver a successful event, incident free event, and that happened for St. Lucia. So we're quite happy with where we are going with the festivals. St. Lucia's are beginning to embrace it. When we started two years ago, it was a challenge because, you know, it's always difficult to accept change. But I think as we continue to evaluate our programs, as we continue to assess and infuse the suggestions that keep coming through from the public and persons who are interested in the advancement of our country, I think we can only continue to strengthen this program. In October, St. Lucia will be celebrating at San Heritage Month, the last event of the St. Lucia Solei Summer Festival. Senator Honorable Fortuna Bellrose noted that the public should expect a very diverse program to help discover who St. Lucia's are as a people. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Anzuan reporting. The Minister for Health and Wellness has called on St. Lucia to be more optimistic about their outlook on the HIV epidemic. More in this report from Miguel Morissette. The fears surrounding the emerging HIV epidemic in the 1980s largely persists today. Michelle Sidibe, UNAID's Executive Director, said, we must not be scared of the future. If we quicken the pace, we can reach 40 million with HIV treatment by 2020 and quoted, HIV is not a death sentence with the spoken words of Health Minister, Senator Honorable Mary Isaac, was addressing media personnel at the Caribbean Cytometric Analytical Society, 15th Summit Opening Cocktail Reception in St. Lucia. We still have so much stigma attached to persons living with HIV to the point where a lot of people do not even want to come out to be treated. And tonight, we have heard about getting tested and treated and that that is so very important and vital for that segment of society. Many St. Lucia still believe that HIV, being infected with HIV, is a death sentence. And it is good that CICAS is here to educate at least the people who will be participating. You know, to educate them that it is not a death sentence, that there is health, there is hope and you can continue to live a very healthy and long life even if you are infected with HIV. So for St. Lucia, this is a very, very important event that is taking place right here and I hope that it gets out to the public. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Caribbean Cytometry and Analytical Society, Professor Clive Landis, assures St. Lucia's and by extension Caribbean people, the HIV treatment works. Currently, we treat HIV patients and we can save their lives and I want to just repeat that because it's very important. HIV has long ceased to be a death sentence. You could live very well with HIV but the key point is that when someone is on treatment with HIV then they also become non-infectious because the HIV is suppressed in their body and cannot be transmitted and we know that because in the Eastern Caribbean and in parts of the Caribbean we've been very successful at suppressing HIV in women's bodies who are pregnant and they cannot transmit the virus to their own child. So there are now seven countries in the Caribbean which have been certified by the World Health Organization for having eliminated HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their children and the basis of that is very simple. The treatment of HIV in the mom's bodies suppresses the virus to the point where it cannot be transmitted to the baby and the baby is free of HIV. And guess what? The same thing happens with sexual transmission of HIV. If the person who has HIV is on treatment then that person, he or she, cannot pass the virus onto their sexual partner. And so the minister has reminded us that we need to be, I think, a bit more positive about where we are right now in the HIV epidemic. We can save lives and when we place people in treatment we can inhibit the spread of this disease. Health officials are stressing the fact that the elimination of HIV is a community effort and are calling for the elimination of societal barriers as they deter people from coming forward for treatment. The SICA summit runs from August 26th to the 40th under the theme from care to cure towards the elimination of HIV. From the communications unit in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Miguel Morris said reporting. Residents of Grozile who have given dedicated service as community leaders, activists, youth advocates or simply inspired others have been formally recognized for their efforts as Chevroy Marius with the highlights of the inaugural Lille Awards. On Saturday, August 25th, 2018, the parliamentary representative for Grozile Honourable Leonard Montute held a ceremony to honor committed community members who have contributed towards community development and students who have excelled in the Common Entrance and CXC examinations. The student awardees were Trey Philip from the Dame Pellet Primary School, Ginelle Richardson from the Grand Riviere Primary School, Juanita Nathaniel from the Grozile Primary School, Amelia Rosemond from the Moshe Primary School, Cletus Adonis from the Grozile Secondary School and the top Common Entrance achiever was Ms. April Dagana from the Camille Rene Memorial School. According to the parliamentary representative, the initiative was well received and said that the new decision to recognize community heroes must be continued. It is my hope and my intention that these awards become institutionalized and that we have annual awards for generations to come. We have a number of pioneers in this constituency. We have a number of people who have made great strides. We have a lot of people who have made contributions very often unheralded, very often unrecognized, very often not even appreciated. It is time that we take some time off, not only to publicly make generalized comments about recognizing the stalwarts who have gone before us and the contributions that they have made, but to single out the people who, by and large, have been making their contribution quite quietly without any fanfare and without any recognition. Community members will recognize for their contribution to community growth and development in the fields of sports, youth development, business, community service, arts and entertainment, politics and long-standing community group service. The awardees receive gold and silver medals designed by Mr. Taddeus Montute. The Lillet Award ceremony was held at the Golden Palm Hotel, Rodney B. From the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment, Youth Development, Sports, Culture and the Local Government, I am Chauvin Marius. And that's Nation Beat. Join us next time as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. I am Janelle Norville.