 The Prime Minister thanks local charities and organisations for their hard work. The Diaspora Resource Team gets an encouraging visit. Government continues to focus on economic and social recovery. And a discussion on support to local bus drivers. Let's dig into the pages of this week's instalment of the Prime Minister's weekly diary. I want to say to all of you who said thank you. That really, we owe you the thanks. Honestly, what you do is incredible. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shastney thanked a wide cross-section of charities and organisations as they were presented with the proceeds from the Prime Minister's annual Independence Ball on Monday. Seventeen charities spoke about the work of their organisations and how they would use the funds for those most in need. One thing that is common among all the groups is humanitarian, about helping each other. And that's what I saw here today. Persons who have not asked why but have picked themselves up to say we're going to solve a problem. Over 250,000 were given out to the Mungoosh Club's 60th St. Lucia Crisis Centre, Viewford Children's Home, National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities, Helen's Daughters, Girls of a Feather, A.D. Nusset-Lisi, the Pierre Foundation, the Salvation Army, the Viewford Comprehensive Secondary School Science Lab, and many more. The top-receiving organisation was the Boys' Training Centre, who received $50,000. The Prime Minister's Independence Ball is held annually as part of the nation's independence activities and is organised jointly by the Office of the Prime Minister, the National Independence Committee, and hosted by the Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Raquel Dubele Shasne, who is the driving force behind the event. The Office of the Prime Minister and the Independence Committee thanks all the sponsors and patrons of the ball who make the donations possible. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shasne addressed the first quarterly meeting of the Diaspora Resource Team. He thanked the team for their selfless patriotic service to the Diaspora and by extension to the government and people of St. Lucia. The Prime Minister also thanked the Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs for this initiative. The Diaspora Resource Team is made up of senior managers from various sectors within the government and the private sector. This is a very significant meeting, our committee that we've put together. It has my full support, not only morally and in spirit, but also in terms of the efforts that we're putting behind the scenes to really encourage more participation from our St. Lucia Diaspora. Later on Tuesday, the House of Assembly met with the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance focusing first on financing for essential COVID-19 pandemic related health emergencies and economic and social recovery. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Hon. Alan Shasne, moved a motion in Parliament to borrow the sum of 10.7 million from the Caribbean Development Bank for this purpose. The CDB is a key development partner of St. Lucia and continues to provide critical support to the government of St. Lucia in periods of distress. This loan will permit the government to preserve fiscal space and allow for the financial resources that would have been required for debt servicing to be directed to financing other immediate needs of the country in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and resuscitating the economy. Also coming up in Parliament was financing for the Caribbean Regional Air Transport Connectivity Project and the Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, all part of government's budget for 2020-2021. For more on the Parliament sitting, visit Government of St. Lucia's YouTube page. The Prime Minister and Minister for Transport met this week with representatives from various minibus associations and the National Council on Public Transportation. The minister has been meeting regularly with the NCOPT. However, this meeting focused on commitments made by the government to the minibus sector. It was a good opportunity to have had the Prime Minister, my Permanent Secretary, the Chief Transport Officer, the minibus coordinator and myself from the government side along with the presidents of the various minibus associations and the executive of the National Council on Public Transport. The discussions focused around the commitments that have been made by the government in terms of the 1.1 million payout to the minibus sector, which is scheduled to be done sometime during this quarter. All of the documentations have gone through, so it's based on cash flow at the Treasury. We would expect, we are guaranteed that before the end of September, that payment would be made based on our allocations, but I am hoping that sometime very early in the month of August, if everything goes well, that we can have that payment ready for the minibus sector. Also discussed at the meeting were protocols for buses in the current COVID-19 climate and government's overall commitment to the sector. I think it was a good meeting and the PM did express his support for the sector and his commitment to situate and the commitment more so of the Cabinet of Ministers to be able to continue to support the public transport sector and to get it to the level where everyone can be satisfied that we have an excellent public transport sector. Reporting for the Office of the Prime Minister, I am Nicole McDonald. On Friday, Prime Minister Shashne joined the events company for the blessing of their new offices in Rodney Bay by Monsignor Father Patrick Antony. Father Antony led the Prime Minister and the events team in prayer and asked for God's guidance in the work of the organisation. The Prime Minister later spoke to the events board and the staff about the plans for the next year. Also on Friday, the Prime Minister joined via Zoom the 96th meeting of the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank along with Acting PSA Finance Esther Rigabet. Among the agenda items was the Governor's report on monetary and credit conditions in the ECCU. As the week came to a close, the Prime Minister reminded Sen lotions to remain vigilant during the Atlantic hurricane season, play our part, stay informed on the weather reports and recognise the warnings and alerts from the local Met Office and from Nemo. That's it for this week. Join us next week for another exciting look at the Prime Minister's weekly diary.