 Welcome to Nation Beat, I am Jacques Kingston Compton bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The government of St. Lucia reiterates its commitment to improving the justice system. An edutainment roadshow gets the cultural icon series underway. The SSDF is now better able to provide housing assistance after a donation from the government of Taiwan. Build as one of the best health events on island, the Babano Challenge is on. The government of St. Lucia has reiterated its commitment to tackling the scourge of crime and violence. Doing so however is no easy feat, as pointed out by Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shastney. The Prime Minister recently indicated that government has adopted a holistic plan that includes improving the state of the judiciary. Janelle Norville explains. The government of St. Lucia strongly believes that simply stiffening penalties is not the way to reduce crime. Hence the government will be tackling the issue on a holistic level, starting with the improvement of the justice system. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shastney explained that the halls of justice has yet to come to fruition, however it is not due to a lack of trying. Honourable Shastney explained that despite the challenges, the government will make every effort to see that the court in particular, the criminal court, is provided proper facilities. The first thing I did is I offered the court system the financial centre building. That was the first thing that I did and after months of showing how we could retrofit it and making the resources available, and I have to say to you, disappointing hundreds of workers who were expecting to work into that building, we were told that the justice system didn't want to go in. Then we looked at putting a temporary facility on Barnard Hill and a project that started off at around 25 to 26 million dollars. After everybody's intervention ended up around 50 to million dollars. At 50 million dollars I have to say okay, it's better to build a permanent building. We then solicited the private sector's involvement to build new courthouses at the Hall of Justice and the price came in at 65 million US dollars. Now as much as I put justice as a priority, there's no way that I can find 65 million dollars and I can undertake that expense. During the opening of the new Law Year 2018-2019, St. Dusha was singled out by Chief Justice, her Ladyship Dame Janice Pereira of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for not having adequate court facilities. Over the years, I and Chief Justices before me have repeatedly spoken up and pleaded for the urgent need for governments to give some priority to and provide adequate court facilities. 51 years on since the establishment of this court, little if anything has been done, courtrooms are still housed in ill-suited buildings which have posed attendant security and health risks to court users and occupiers. Whilst courtroom closures are understandable following the passage of hurricanes and the like, it is unacceptable that court users and occupiers have been consistently placed in harm's way in respect of their health and security. This year, we have experienced the closure of the criminal court facilities in St. Dusha for security reasons and the closure of all courthouses in Grenada for health reasons. These failures pose a real threat to access to justice and the delivery of justice. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shastney added that despite the challenges the government has come up with, what it believes to be a suitable solution. We have now decided that we're going to build independent court structures. One of them, we think the most important one, really is the criminal court which is actually in an Araya building right now, which is grossly inadequate. We've all been there and we've all heard that the judge has lamented and so therefore the decision was to move the police headquarters from the Golden Hole because what had happened is almost everybody has moved out of the police buildings. So they're now vacant because the buildings are inhabitable and therefore the idea was to demolish the old prison and in demolishing the old prison to build now the police headquarters which will also house the criminal court. The Prime Minister reiterated the government's commitment to ensuring the judiciary is provided suitable court facilities in the shortest possible time. From the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville. The Cultural Development Foundation is preparing to host the fourth edition of the Cultural Icon Series, a national event that honors persons who have left an indelible mark on the artistic and cultural landscape of St. Lucia. A group of budding arts and cultural enthusiasts have embarked on an educational drive introducing students to the series. One of the things that we have been doing is that we've been trying to connect and interact with a lot of young people. We are proposing what we are calling a culture crew. That crew is going to be a group of young persons who are going to be accompanying the staff and management of the CDF at various activities and events that we put on and they are going to be most in activities relating to arts and culture. The students have been really, really, really excited and very receptive. One of the things that I must say I was so thrilled about when we went into Denry is that the grouping that was presented to the class was grade sixes and they have been doing theatre arts, they do theatre arts as part of their curriculum and they were just so attentive, you could see them taking in the dances and taking in the music. The cultural crew got a chance to meet St. Lucia's renowned folk musician Joseph Ramopolyor, the chosen icon for this year's Cultural Icon Series. The culture crew has visited five schools including Bellevue, Salterbus, Denry and Viewfort Primary Schools and are scheduled to visit seven additional schools during this week. The Cultural Icon Series forms part of the Calendar Arts and Heritage Month. This year's showcase, Strings, Songs and Dance, Celebrating Ramo will take place on Monday October 1 at the Bellevue Primary School courtyard. The St. Lucia Social Development Fund or SSDF has received a shot in the arm with a donation from the Government of Work Public of China on Taiwan. This contribution has been embarked to support the SSDF's efforts at improving housing conditions in vulnerable communities. SSDF does just give handouts, it gives a hand up. It helps empower people whether it be in terms of education, in terms of housing, in terms of reaching boys who are disadvantaged through their mentoring program for boys. So we are just so excited to support the work of the SSDF. As you know, the Ministry of External Affairs is the ministry that reaches out to friendly governments and outside agencies to connect them with agencies and government departments so that we can deepen and strengthen our cooperation. And what we will do here today in receiving this donation from Taiwan to the SSDF is just an example of the work we do. It is not enough to just give a person a house. You give a person a house and you assist them in uplifting their standard of living but maintaining it and even putting food on the table is a different story. So we now in the process of engaging the people that we assist with houses is to see where we can perhaps help them create an employment, maybe micro-enterprise self-employment and that sort of thing so that we can empower them to be able to take care of themselves. So this donation this morning will go a long way. I mean there is no one fixed poverty, none whatsoever. There are a number of things that need to be done and every little bit helps. And it's for that reason I really want to thank the Excellency for this generous donation. To help this organization means to help those poorest solution people because I believe for a human being we should live in the same quality of life. In Taiwan we always said a friend in need is a friend indeed. We try to reach out, we try to do our best to do something to SSDF and we call on no matter it's friend, friend or solution to support SSDF and to help this country to move forward to a more healthy future. Thank you. This is Nation Beat, still to come, harmonizing practices in the education system. If you're HIV positive or have an STI, having unprotected sex with multiple partners puts them in grave danger. You'll expose every partner and their present and future partners to HIV or another STI. Use a condom every time you have sex. You can live a productive life even if diagnosed with HIV. Remember early detection is key to your survival. Be responsible, protect yourself and others. Help stop the spread of HIV and other STIs. Welcome back. A delegation of youth mentors from the Charity Arm of the United Kingdom Football Club Stoke City Community Trust recently helped deliver a sports program for disabled children in St. Lucia. The organization partnered with the Local Charity Sacred Sports Foundation and the Premier League International Development Fund to facilitate the program. Carl Bennett says his organization sought methods to help alleviate the challenges met by the island's special needs community. So the two principles that we applied for this was, number one, identify some disabled people themselves and work with them and build some competencies and skills and experience in working with peers. And number two, introduce two or three activities that sacred sport could actually continue working with these individuals with. So those two activities are botcher, which is a Paralympic sport and blind football. In highlighting the importance of the program, Bennett cited the advantages of empowerment, confidence and trust building. So we've actually worked so far this week with individuals with autism, with Aspergers, with severe learning disabilities and physical disabilities. And each and every one of those has had chance to try blind football. And I was talking to some of the teachers from some of these schools and they were saying, wow, you know, they would have just ripped this blindfold off because they're so uncomfortable here. But what they actually did have was a smile on the face. And that's something which I reiterate to all of the coaches that work at Stoke City Football Club and all the coaches that work for sacred sport. If a child goes away from a session with a smile on the face, we've done something positive because on that day that might be the only time that that child smiles. And that's what this initiative is all about, is bringing smiles, bringing enjoyment, fun, but also bringing some new skills and competency to sacred sport so they can continue some of this really positive work. According to Mr. Bennett, the Premier League has provided 20,000 pounds of funds to the initiative. In addition, the youth mentors themselves have raised 3,000 pounds in funding. Principles of Education District 4 have been improving the quality of their practices that is hoped will redound to the adoption of a mutual system of operations through schools within the district. Chris Satney has more. The goal for the Education District was achieved in the first instance with a professional development session which came off at the pastoral centre at Marysill. The 14 principles and other important coordinators were updated with the new procedures of the Division of Education and received the sessions in Human Resource Development. Education Officer for District 4, Marie-George Arlet, says the annual activity is being done under the theme, improving the quality of principles, practices for the common future of District 4. This activity is very important for me as well because I am newly appointed to the position. So I want to ensure that the principles of the district know the new policies that the Ministry is implementing for this year. So for example, we have the new guidelines for the management of school funds. We have the school bus 3 and school feeding guidelines that are also new. And so it is important for the principles and the Education Officer as well to be aware of the new policies. Meantime, Miss Arlet has been commanding the Department of Education, Innovation and Agenda Relations for the refurbishment works accomplished on schools within her district. This academic year, we saw a lot of work being done under schools and we're quite pleased with the amount of effort that was put into refurbishing and getting the schools ready for the new academic year. The principles have expressed their satisfaction. There is still some work to be done but they're happy with the amount of work that was done in a short space of time. We're all settled and ready to go and the work continues as we speak on a weekend to improve the school plans. District 4 is made up of schools within the communities of Ansleray, Bexon, Cicero, Laquamengo, Marigou, Roso, Millet, Hodza and Labii. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Agenda Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Chris Satney reporting. Export St. Lucia, TIPA, is encouraging farmers to engage in organic farmers' practices as organic produce reap higher prices on the international market. Justin Budow, Director of Client Services Delivery at TIPA, says organic produce widens and exporters market access and increases income. That it provides you a greater marketing tool. For example, if you have two identical tomatoes in the US grocery store, one being organic and one being not organic, even with a higher price the organic tomato and current demand for millenials will move faster. And especially when we have small cultures like us who do not specify in large supply, fetching a high price in niche markets is more important than mass production. Mr. Budow says TIPA assists farmers with their certification process which can be complex and a bit costly. The way organic certification works is that you have to prove to the inspection body that for the last two years that you have not used any of the chemicals that fall outside of organic. We have a few exporters here who are looking at it, but it's a process because for many years, as you know, agriculture, which was heavily monocrop in bananas, have been using pesticides that do not fall within that organic scope for a long time. So you would have to stop using them for a period of two years before you could get that certification. And that certification is quite costly. In fact, TIPA has tried to assist farmers in the past and we are appealing to farmers who wish to go organic to come to TIPA to see how we could provide that kind of support. TIPA officials are encouraging new agricultural entrepreneurs and younger farmers to adopt organic farming practices due to increased health benefits and a higher product value. The issues of chronic non-communicable diseases, physical inactivity, anxiety and depression coupled with the lack of early detection is being addressed in the community of Babano through the Babano Challenge Fun Walk and Health Fair. Built as one of the best all-encompassing health events on Ireland, organizers of the event encourage St. Lucian's to be concerned about their personal health and well-being. The excitement is building for the third edition of the Babano Challenge Fun Walk and Health Fair, scheduled for Monday, October 1st, 2018. The event, which is coordinated by the Babano Good Shepherd Catholic Church, was born out of the need to get community members more interested in their personal health and well-being, particularly after realizing the devastating effects of non-communicable diseases such as cancer is wreaking within families. Parish priest at Babano and member of the planning committee, Father Celestin Noakwa, highlighted the importance of this activity. We here at Babano Good Shepherd Parish believe in holistic life which comprises spiritual, physical and psychological so that you will be complete, awareness, so that you balance both your spiritual life and your physical body, and that gives you really all you need to really have a good life. He said the new route which commences at the Babano school ground is quite scenic and goes through the communities of Hill 20, Geno, Bocache, Mondudon, Union and Balleter. Father Celestin has walked this new route four times over the past consecutive Saturdays. He noted, however, the most important element of the activity is the massive health fair at the end of the walk. Participants are encouraged to get their blood pressure and blood sugar tested, eye and hearing screening, PSA testing for men, among many other health checks. It has been an awesome experience for us here in Babano and in fact all our environs. So we are looking forward for a great, great walk this year. But the good thing about it is really, it's not as challenging as our former routes. It's longer but really smoother, easier and cooler. So I think really something we are all looking for this year is going to be great. Community member from Lagge Magdalen Florius also participated in the mock walks on Saturdays. She stated the reason why persons should turn out in their numbers for the Babano Challenge fun walk and health fair. For sure, Babano is one of the most exciting communities and we have lovely and wonderful people in Babano. So I would advise and encourage anybody to take that opportunity and join us on October 1st, 2018 from 6am. October 1st also marks the start of Creole Heritage Month on Ireland. Organisers have also planned a healthy Creole breakfast, traditional games and musical entertainment by the Chasse solo band at the end of the walk. Glenn Simon reporting. And that's Nation Beat. Join us next time as we feel the pulse and heart of our community. I am Jackingson Compton.