 And I know the training was short, I know it was intense, and I know some of you did not think that you were ready for this morning. But let me tell you, you are all stars now, and everybody will be looking at you for future political leadership, because you showed that you have that ability. There were a few of you that were outstanding. I saw the nerves, but I also heard what you were saying, and I was following on Facebook and seeing all of the comments that were coming in. So you did great. Congratulate yourself and be proud of yourself. I would now like to call on the Honorable Claudius Francis, the Speaker of the House of the Parliament of St. Lucia, to offer a few congratulatory remarks to all of you. Thank you, Karen. Today is indeed historic. I've known Karen many, many, many years. This is the first time she has ever referred to me as Honorable Claudius Francis. That's absolutely historical. So thank you very much, Karen. So Karen told you about Parlamericas. Parlamericas is really the short acronym for the Parliaments of the Americas, the United States, Latin, Central, and South America. I am fortunate enough to not just be a member of Parlamericas, I happen to be on the Executive Board of Parlamericas, so we were really happy to have our YWIL chapter in St. Lucia on the Karen's tutelage to bring this seminar forward. And as you said, today is just the culmination. Today, most people have seen you here and figured, as they say colloquially, you just come down, and you're in that. But it's really the culmination of weeks of training, questions, answers, doubts being erased. Today was just the day. And I was telling the Prime Minister, not just today, I told her that today, but I've told her that before, people who watch Parliament on television say, well, I can do that too, you know? But not just being seated in those seats is something else. These are the seats where laws are made that affect every one of you here and every one of the 180,000 or 90,000 solutions. These 17 people that sit here in these 17 chairs decide for five years at least to define your future. So next month, we'll be passing laws saying that if defining who I am, the minimum sentence you're getting is 10 years, these 17 people will decide that. So I don't want you to take this experience lightly. I want you to always remember this. I've spoken to parliamentarians who were in office for 15 years and they're no longer here. And they tell me they miss not the debates in it, just the thrill of sitting in these chairs. Because sitting here, you project some power, some authority. And that is what this was intended to do. As Karen said, to let you know that each and every one of you can be the real deal. This is a trial run. And we are hoping that in the not the distant future we will actually see some of you here in the real thing. And people laughed. You know, there was a time when the NYC was formed in the 1980s with Mario Michelle as its first president. If I tell you how many NYC members have now sat in these chairs from Mario himself, who he was the person who rose the highest in the deputy prime minister. And Ernest Hilaire has now equaled him. We have had people like Edward Innocent, Oliver Baptiste. And so many of them came from the NYC. We want to see the same thing happen to Wyver. We are proud as we stand here now, the elections in Grenada last week, only one female won. One. We are happy in this parliament that 66% of the composition of the Senate is women. 66%. So there are twice as many women in the Senate as there are men. So we are very proud of that. And we want to see more in the House as well. We only have two. That didn't mean only two run. More than two did go up, but only two were victorious. But we want to see many more of you victorious. But don't put any barriers on yourselves. The only limits are those you set on yourself. The prime minister has been very hard on herself a little while ago. So I was happy that Karen was not around when I was speaking with you and Karen told you exactly what I told you. And she was not there when I spoke with you. I thought you were all very good. And talk about history. Objection, heresy. Not even the real parliament has had a member participate virtually. You all did it today. So you all are one of the head of us. We are trying as we speak now to make the parliament paperless. So we have given, good to see the House of Assembly, every member of the House has been given a tablet. So as we progress, we'll kill less trees to make less paper so we can use the tablets as part of the, although I must tell you, walking into parliament with a file in your hand feels real good. Feels really, really good as opposed to just your hand swinging or a tablet alone. So there is that balance. But thank you very much for creating some history in San Dusha and Karen, you don't have to wait for another while or Palamerica's inspired seminar for us to do this. We can have this as an annual affair. So long. I can't speak for other presiding officers, but so long as I'm the presiding officer, I can assure you that we can do this on an annual basis. So thank you very much to all of you. You all have made us proud. I trust the Senate will follow suit in about an hour and a half time. But thank you very much and congratulations, all of you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know that we, Civil San Dusha will be taking you up on that offer. Definitely, most definitely. So we're quickly coming to the end of our little ceremony and I just want to make sure that I say thanks to, when we do things like that, the supporters is critical and I know for all of you seated here around this table that you would have had the support of your friends and family and I know that you bothered them even more than you bothered us. And so I want to say thank you to the families and friends of all of you on your behalf who tolerated you for the last how many weeks because I know what the journey was. I was there with you. I know what the journey was. I also want to take a little time just to thank some corporate organizations who came on board with support flow, who helped us with some of our participants with data packages and other devices. PCD, Ms. Jasmine O'Geese-Henry, I need to mention you really specifically and specially and say thank you. I think you went over and above to make sure that we were accommodated with so many requests and PCD, we can't thank you enough for the support that you have given us. Blue waters and of course raise your voice who is always willing to help with anything pertaining to women and women's issues in St. Lucia. I listened to some of you here today and so many issues came up that were so pertinent Let me tell you, Madam Leader of the Opposition, the issues that you spoke to are issues dear to my heart. I have been speaking about it for a while. I actually have like a personal charity drive that I do every year based on exactly that where I get toiletries and that to distribute to various communities of ladies and young ladies and young mothers, vulnerable who cannot, really cannot. I think sometimes that's one of the little things. It's a huge thing for us as women. It's a little thing in the scope of everybody's daily lives and we do not understand the significance, the importance. I don't even know what the other word is that I can attach to just that little area of our lives that really dominates our lives. So thank you so much for raising the issue of sanitary products and how important it is in the life of a woman. I think that our ministers were listening and actually heard that plea and that we will see very soon a motion brought into this very house by our parliamentarians to ask that that taxes be removed not only on sanitary napkins and sanitary items but also on, I'm not sure if it has already been done on disposable diapers. I'm not sure. I remember as well that that was one of the issues. So along the way, we met a lot of characters. We met a lot of ministers. We met a lot of support people from the government of St. Lucia and I'm sure you will all help me welcome the deputy speaker of the House of Parliament. Do you all remember him? He's always there. He spent almost the whole of Friday with us whilst we were doing our drier than helping. All of us. So we just want to present you with some certificates to tell you that we know that the journey was a little tough and it is something that you will have to keep to show that you actually participated in this historic moment in St. Lucia. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I will call your name. We will be in books down below. I don't know. Maybe... Ambosantros is not here with us. You heard the speaker said we've created history. Ambo was one of those joining us virtually actually spoken about in the chat on the government website where somebody said, well now our parliamentarians have no excuse not to present in parliament again, if the ladies can present virtually, so can they wherever they go, they can look after the business of the state. So Honourable Speaker, you have a challenge, okay? No. It wasn't my fault, yeah? No, it wasn't. Why? The speaker is not here. Ms. Annie Sam. She's coming to your back. Krishna Alexander. Krishna Alexander, our Sergeant of Arms this morning. Did a fantastic job. You don't agree? Even a move in our election all around the place. Yeah, we always have to tell her to smile. Gabrielle Elly and you will also be received a token from PCD Limited. Yes? Aye, aye, aye. We give you the name. Indira Tusser, our leader of the opposition. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ms. Jemaya Thomas also joined us virtually. So, Jemaya and Amber joining us virtually. Kershel Roland, Kimaya Popo. No, no, no, no, no. Bimbo from Babylon is special. Melody Fere, Honourable Prime Minister, Monique Ogis. You know that. We've had other failures, but yes, Nikia Flavius. I can never pronounce that. It's Nikia, yes, our class. Nikia, our class. Okay, Sharon. Ms. Daniel, you need to pronounce your first name for me again. I'm not biting my tongue. Ms. Cicat. You see that? Ms. Cicat. Ms. Cicat, Daniel. And if you were wondering about her quaint accent, she is of African descent. Yes, yes. So that would have accounted for her quaint accent with us. Our speaker, didn't you think that the speaker did a fantastic job? Ms. Tinef Shanton, amazing. Yes. You should have seen the comments on the chat when this young lady was speaking. Yes. Ms. Shashamani Shalman. I'm blessing you. I'm so proud of Shashamani. Smile, sir. Smile. Cherries John. Cherries John. Tysia Paul. Venetia Dennis. And Zoya Francois. Zoya Francois. That's all the entire process here. Hello. Thank you so very much. Thank you so very much. Hello, good afternoon. Thank you for you. You know, there are two people watching online, following us online. You have met them a number of times online. And you met Dili in person when we did our one-day workshop in Irish. I want to say thank you so much. Putting something like this together is a challenge. Putting something like this together and coordinating it when you are off-island can be even more of a challenge. But the virtual space has given us the opportunity to be able to do this. And so let's just give Dili an eilish. I say thank you. And Tessa, who is downstairs, still downstairs somewhere, taking care of us as she has been doing from the beginning of the program. Thank you so much, young ladies. Like the Honorable Speaker said, I hope this is not the end of the journey for you. It has been an exciting couple of few weeks for training. Sewell St. Lucia is here to assist and help, to help you develop. You can get in touch with us. We are online on all of the social media things. Just look for Sewell St. Lucia. You will find us. All look for Sewell Regional and you will find us there as well. Okay. Thank you again so very much. I am just an entertainer of the world for carrying this light. It will be not something to be ordinary. Thank you very much for everything you do. And we hope you will have a say on this. Thank you. Let me just acknowledge the presence of Senator Alvina Reynolds. Yes, senior. Yes, senior. Senator Reynolds, of course, has served as a government minister. Senator Eisen is an avid supporter of women's issues and a community activist. Always, always keeping the female agenda alive and well. So thank you so much. It's so nice to see you here with us this morning. Thank you ladies. Thank you so much to the friends and family in the gallery who joined us this morning. Thanks for the support. You have come to the end of your journey. I know you want to sit in the park in the chamber and not go anywhere. That's an interruption. Yes, yes. I agree. That's an interruption because we will continue the journey and I hope that I live to see some of you sitting in this very chamber at some point in time soon. I know you're thinking that you're too young but you're not too young to start on that level. Okay. Thank you ladies. Thank you so much. Make sure you all give your own honorable Jerry Mayer. All right. I'm going to take myself out of that.