 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am Genelle Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The island's budgeting tourism industry has recorded another success. A targeted approach is being taken to reduce escalating levels of diabetes in St. Lucia and enhancing sports at the community and national levels. The island's budgeting tourism industry recorded another success, November 3 with the addition of premium mint service flight by JetBlue to the Hironora International Airport. Government officials and officials of the St. Lucia tourism authority SLTA on Saturday welcomed the inaugural JetBlue Mint service. The flight originated out of Boston Logan International Airport and landed at Hironora International Airport. The St. Lucia tourism authority is ecstatic about the new service. SLTA's chief marketing officer Tiffany Howard indicated that this is exciting news for the destination as the introduction of the JetBlue Mint service from Boston signifies continued growth in the luxury sector out of the Northeast United States. According to Howard, the goal is to continue welcoming more visitors to St. Lucia and JetBlue as a partner continues to complement the SLTA's marketing efforts. It is such an exciting day for St. Lucia and for the St. Lucia tourism authority because it is through our efforts and our partnership with JetBlue that we are able to make this inaugural service happen. And we are very excited about what the potential for that means from Boston, which is one of our finest cities that we know that we have folks that are really excited about coming to St. Lucia in. And we have on hand today our head of the USA, Ms. Kelly Fontanelle, who had the privilege of being on the flight today, as well as Mr. Ernie George, who is always in the market and there with the folks up in Boston making sure that St. Lucia is always top of mind. While it is not a new flight, JetBlue has added its premium mint service to the route, which allows passengers the luxury of kicking back and relaxing on fully lifelike seats. Each seat features cushions with adjustable firmness and a massage feature, a comforter and pillow and ergonomic touches. In addition, the mint service provides individualized seatback TVs and unlimited snacks. SLTA's director of marketing for the USA, Kelly Fontanelle Clark highlighted the benefits to St. Lucia. Boston is a very is a key market for tourism for St. Lucia. This is where most of our arrival come from the northeast. So having the mint service out of the Boston area just talks to our luxury market and allowing the luxury customers another way to get to St. Lucia. JetBlue is one of the biggest airlines to the Caribbean out of Boston. And then we are happy that they've decided to keep the mint service out of Boston to St. Lucia. It's now a seasonal service. Hopefully keeping our fingers crossed, it will be all year round. The SLTA expressed the country is to benefit significantly from the flight. The St. Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association has planned a number of events during the month of November to highlight the behaviors and practices individuals need to engage in to reduce the escalated levels of diabetes on island. The Ministry of Health, Marcy Stores and other strategic partners are working closely with the Association to make a bigger impact this year. St. Lucia has an estimated 14 per cent prevalence of diabetes among the population. So said Dr. Shana Sear of Filbert, the non-communicable disease focal point in the Ministry of Health and Wellness. We're looking at being overweight or obese, smoking, living a very sedentary lifestyle in terms of not exercising, and just family history. If let's say your mom or dad was or is diabetic, you're more prone to becoming diabetic. Proper nutrition and regular exercise has been proven effective in the prevention and management of diabetes. The theme for this year's World Diabetes Day is Diabetes and Families. What we're looking at is making sure that our population is aware of the fact that diabetes is not just the individual's problem but the whole family's problem. And we're even going outside of that. We're looking at society as being a big family so that we, everyone needs to help the other person. President of the St. Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association, Andrew Felix, challenged the corporate sector, particularly insurance companies, to do more in the fight against diabetes. His statement was made during a check presentation of $8,000 by Marci Stores to support Diabetes Month. Insurance companies all out there, not just in St. Lucia but throughout the region, one of the things they have to understand is wouldn't they rather have clients coming to them talking about referrals, making payments, or would they rather have clients coming to them to make claims? They need to just digest that and understand the importance of that because we are here to reduce diabetes and escalate in tsunami levels of the rising tide of diabetes globally. Soraya Bess Joseph, Divisional Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Marci Stores, said being one of the largest employers on island with over 1200 employees, the company understands the impact lifestyle diseases such as diabetes can have on productivity and performance. We have understood the importance of ensuring that we not only engage with associations like the Diabetes Association and support their work but more importantly, we want to be able to support our staff who need information, who need to become more aware of diseases, of how they can better manage their health, wellness, fitness, etc. Meanwhile, the youth are being called upon to get educated about the disease by paying greater attention to the risk factors which can lead to diabetes. Pusias Prosper is the Vice President of the Youth Diabetic Group. So the youth who probably wouldn't think about it because they don't have any medical condition but unhealthy living could lead to diabetes. So of course to the youth we're telling you to live healthy, take part in all our activities this month so that you get educated and you know about diabetes at the same time so you can live a better and longer healthy life. For the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Glenn Simon reporting. The Solid Waste Management Authority is attempting to improve the handling and management of solid waste in St. Lucia with the execution of a solid waste characterization study at the Deglo Sanitary Landfill. The Solid Waste Characterization Study allows the St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority to determine the composition and quantity of residential solid waste with the aim of developing a plan for waste collection, recycling and disposal. The study focused on solid waste originating from the grossly and ancillary canry's collection zones. Zonal supervise of the St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority, Cassian Henry says, such an initiative is important as it will set the basis for the implementation of a recycling and reduction waste management program in St. Lucia. In this case here we're pulling out a 90 kilogram or 200 pound sample from each load that lands here in the landfill and the guys here would physically separate the various types of waste streams. For example, plastics, the various types of plastics, the various types of glass, various types of organics and so on and so forth. What that enables us to do is to be able to determine the quantities of the said waste streams. Henry says this study is expected to assist the authority with efforts to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfills. Currently we are experiencing some difficulties with how waste is placed out for collection and how waste is collected from the municipality in terms of the various well the various communities. So households would be able to do a separation of waste at that level in terms of having plastics separated from you know the bulk waste and you would have organics put aside and so on and so forth. So what that means is that we would have less waste to deal with at the landfill and rather have waste going in all the dimensions where it can be put back into some usefulness. The waste characterization categories sampled include paper and paper board, glass, metal, plastics, textile, organics, construction and demolition waste, special care waste and other these foods solids. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Fennel Nettin reporting. With just one click, the internet connects people, businesses and nations. Being connected can open a world of information and opportunities. You can get services and products of your choice much faster. From electronic financial transactions to connecting with family and friends. From being up to date with the latest news and information to learning new skills and acquiring academic qualifications. All from the convenience of your home or wherever you roam. Get connected today. This message is brought to you as a public service announcement by Ectel, the NTRC and this station. Welcome back. The Pan American Health Organization, PAHO and the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of Health and Wellness have combined efforts to execute a mission that would benefit consumers. The Environmental Health Department completed a one-day training session on Wednesday October 31 for food handlers and proprietors of small food establishments. The aim of the workshop which was hosted in collaboration with PAHO was to improve standards on foods and services offered to consumers. Ernie Pierre is an environmental health officer and the facilitator for the event. Our role here today is to empower them more or less and to see food production within their food establishment. Through routine inspection, we have really recognized that we need to focus quite a bit on training because even when the equipment is provided within food establishments, the practices can predispose persons to foodborne illnesses if the food handler doesn't know what they are doing. And today we are embarking on a drive. Basically we have had two such training sessions, one in the south and one in the north as well, to empower those persons to ensure that they are equipped with basic food safety principles in terms of ensuring that when they produce food that they are producing from the establishment safe foods. PSA, this training workshop, is beneficial to the persons who are involved and by extension the consuming public. We are looking forward to seeing an improvement in terms of sanitation in food establishment, in the practices food hygiene principles, in terms of how they handle food coming out of that workshop. Secondly, it therefore means it can ease burden on the ministry in terms of less inspection, less frequency of visit if those persons are in fact in compliance because if you are not in compliance you see us a lot more often. It will also cause a lot of those food establishments the standard to rise, therefore ensuring that they are licensed and with the benchmark. Ministry officials are appealing to food handlers to comply with safe and healthy practices to prevent any future mishaps. From the communications units in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Miguel Morris is reporting. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports is advancing plans for the enhancement of sports at the community and national level. Her's Ryan O'Brien. Plainfields island-wide will get some much needed consistent maintenance as government rolls out a new initiative for the upkeep of Plainfields on the island. Ricky Alexander is Executive Assistant to Ministry of Sports, the Honourable Edman Estefan who is keen on having the new programme started. It has taken a little time but it has through strategic planning and organisation so that going forward there is no interruption and that is continuous maintenance so government will be doing this ASAP to ensure that all the Plainfields all around the island are well maintained. Mr Alexander also gave an insight on some plans of the department to advance development of sports and athletes on island. The key issue is to be able as the both the Minister of Youth and Sports and the Prime Minister have indicated that through assistance for the national lotters now that government is going to take the brand of the infrastructure development so a lot of the funds will go towards maintenance, programme development, support for uniforms and ensuring that you know we have our athletes well equipped and so forth to be able to participate in sports in a meaningful way. Part of the national sports infrastructure strategy includes the laying of a number of synthetic surfaces in various communities. From the Department of Youth Development and Sports, I'm Ryan O'Brien. 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 Genelle Norville.