Work is expected to commence soon on a 3-year project to construct a female Correctional Facility at Belle Isle.
This came from Permanent Secretary in Ministry of National Security Godfrey Pompey, during an interview.
Mr. Pompey said 550 thousand dollars have been allocated for this segment of the Correctional Facility which is expected to cost 2.7 million dollars.
He said this new segment of the correctional facility is expected to accommodate 30 female prisoners.
Mr. Pompey said the Prison department is also expected to facilitate the smooth transition of about 288 male prisoners to the Belle Isle Correctional Facility.
He said the maximum security male Prisoners along with those on remand would remain at the Her Majesty’s Prison in Kingstown.
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent — Ministers of tourism and civil aviation across OECS member states will converge on St Vincent on Thursday to discuss and devise strategic solutions to tourism and aviation issues and challenges currently confronting the Eastern Caribbean.
This joint meeting is in response to a decision taken at the OECS Council of Tourism Ministers and subsequently endorsed by the OECS Authority in May last year.
The purpose of this meeting, as articulated in the ministerial mandate, is to address matters geared towards improving the attractiveness of the OECS airspace and accessibility of destinations, in order to increase air passenger traffic in the region.
More specifically, the ministers will seek to indentify priority areas for joint action including the development of a Common OECS Air Transport Policy; and the preparation of airlift capacity studies to empirically assess the air service needs of the region, and to guide OECS member states’ efforts at attracting and sustaining airlift.
Another matter to be discussed is the implementation of relevant aspects of the San Juan Accord, which is a set of decisions taken by ministers with responsibility for tourism and international transport of member countries of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2007, when the ministers met to discuss proposals for restructuring the region’s air transport sector, with a view to offering safe, secure and sustainable air services in the Caribbean.
This joint meeting, to be chaired by the prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, is deemed important given that not all ministers of tourism in the OECS are assigned the civil aviation portfolio. Whilst Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis have joint tourism and civil aviation ministerial portfolios, the ministries of tourism and civil aviation are separate in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
NEMO will also be spearheading a two day Emergency Response Workshop for the Agricultural component of the CARICOM Brazil Cooperation Programme in collaboration with the CDEMA. Tuesday 7th February will see the opening ceremony of the workshop taking place at the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall at 9:00 am.
Several remarks will be made by various speakers including the feature address to be done by Executive Director of CDEMA Mr. Jeremy Collymore, along with presentations by the Director of NEMO SVG Michelle Forbes and Consultant Dr. Balfour Spence, among others.
The specific objectives of the workshop are to compile a menu of agricultural good practices utilized in the beneficiary country and other CDEMA participating states to mitigate impact of hydro- meteorological hazards, including hurricanes, floods, landslides and droughts.
Also, good practices which are relevant to slope stabilization in the beneficiary states will be identified. A presentation of good practices will be made under a Caribbean regional project funded by the FAO.
In addition, a draft model community based agricultural disaster risk management plan for the beneficiary state will be developed.
At a Gender Based Workshop which concluded here Wednesday 7th September 2011; was committed to safe guard the well-being of all women local women’s groups and organization seeking to promote reproductive health and well-being. This includes protecting women against gender base violence during and after times of conflict.
The United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) sponsored the workshop and sought to highlight some of the key issues which are affecting women across the region.
According to a Belizean (UNFPA) representative, this notion has to be changed in order to bring about change.
She added that one of the most important steps that we can take in this regard is to invest in the well-being of women and girls, and empower them to demand equality of well fare equal access to resources, services and decision making and the domestic local and national levels.
The ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) in St Vincent and the Grenadines has defended Peter Wickham, the Barbadian pollster who reportedly told US officials that the ULP used money and other handouts to sway voters in hard-fought constituencies in the December 2005 elections.
The ULP was returned to office after it won 12 of the 15 parliamentary seats in 2005. The opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), which won the three remaining seats, complained about voter irregularities, especially in three constituencies, where it lost by 35, 22, and 16 votes, respectively.
“I want to state categorically, up front, that I have not lost confidence in Peter Wickham neither has this party,” said ULP general secretary and campaign manager Sen. Julian Francis on Tuesday.
“We believe that Peter is being misrepresented in these matters,” Francis added.
According to a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Wickham told US officials in Barbados in 2006 that he believed that a sudden injection of US$350,000 in the last two weeks of the December 2005 election campaign allowed the ULP to sway voters in a handful of hard fought parliamentary races by helping people pay overdue bills, fix leaking roofs, and buy groceries.
The cable said that Wickham told the officials that it was the cash that won the elections for the ULP, since his polls showed the party could very well have lost.
The leaked document further said that Wickham believes the ULP flew about 400 people to St Vincent from the United States for the election.
Wickham, in a press statement, denied having conveyed information to US Ambassador Mary Kramer.
“Specifically, I can state categorically, that I have NEVER met privately with former US Ambassador Mary Kramer, who is alleged to be the author of this cable,” Wickham said in his statement.
The pollster was last Friday fired from the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados, where he was the resident analyst on the company’s radio and television stations.
The cable contains information that Wickham is said to have communicated about three prime ministers in the region.
Under this project, the facilities at the Lowman’s Leeward Primary School were enhanced as a shelter by the addition of sanitation facilities and back up water supply. Four (4) shower units were constructed and a 1000 gallon water tank installed at a total cost of US $10,000.
The Fitz Hughes Government School will also benefit from this project. A maximum amount of US $10,000 will be provided under the project to install showers and water storage tanks. Work will commence by mid- February, 2012.
The CARICOM- Brazil Cooperation Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction is an outcome of the Brasilia Declaration of the First CARICOM/ Brazil Summit held on April 26th, 2010. The Declaration addresses a wide range of issues for closer technical collaboration and cooperation including the strengthening of humanitarian assistance initiatives and fostering best practices for the reduction of risks related to disaster.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is the lead regional agency for implementing this DRR programme in the CARICOM.
On Monday 6th February 2012, officials from the Ministry of Education, Teachers and members of staff of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) will take part in a one day capacity building workshop for the Living Schools component of the CARICOM Brazil Co-operation Programme.
The workshop is organized by NEMO in collaboration with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Knowledge Management Toolkit which has been drafted in the earlier phase of the Living School Project. Specifically, the workshop will engage disaster risk managers and educators in development of a Disaster Jeopardy Game which can be used to promote disaster awareness and interest in disaster risk management issues among school children ages 5- 15 years.
The workshop will take place at NEMO’s Conference Room and led by Project Consultant Dr. Balfour Spence.
Total rainfall for January 2012 at E.T. Joshua Airport-Arnos Vale, was 75.4 millimeters (mm) or 2.96 inches. This was below the average of 130.5mm. There were fifteen days with rainfall more than 1mm, and sixteen days with rainfall less than 1mm. The longest dry spell/period of consecutive days with rainfall less than 1mm was from 23rd to 28th, six days (See figure 1). The second day of the month had the most rainfall (22.7mm or 0.89 inches), which was approximately 30% of the total rainfall for January. The strong breezes which started in December continued in January, sometimes reaching near gale strength. Seas were often moderate to rough in open waters triggering small-craft warnings.
Sharon Halford and Roger Edwards, who are members of the Falklands Islands Legislative Assembly, will be visiting Saint Vincent and the Grenadines next week.
Government Minister, senior officials and the Members of the Legislative Assembly will be meeting on February 7th to 9th to discuss the Falkland Islands.
They will share first-hand their experiences of managing the Falkland Islands economy and internal governance, but also the challenges they face in the United Nations for support for their right to self determination.
Through a series of training workshop, A move has been made to improve the quality of customer service provided in the Public Service; Within the various Government Ministries here.
The training workshop for staff is being conducted by Public Sector Reform Unit.
According to Coreen Gonsalves, Director of the Unit & and Public Sector Reform Unit, will meet with staff from the Immigration Department to share experiences on the importance of providing proper customer service.
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