Nevis, West Indies. ?A Non-Tourist-Trap? Blog About Nevis.

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
July 31, 2010 (SKNIS)

Three weeks of tennis skills development concludes today with a promise to streamline the growth of the sport.

Director of Sports Dave Connor told SKNIS that his Department is working closely with the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on a number of initiatives designed to revive player and public interest in what Coach Ludis Francis termed “the forgotten sport.”

The comments were made during a tour of the Government’s annual Summer Tennis Initiative on Thursday. The camp was once again sponsored by the Venezuelan Embassy and attracted dozens of children between the ages of 6 to 16. Most of the students are part of the schools’ tennis programme implemented by the Department of Sports.

The final week of the camp was devoted to the top 20 participants who were exposed to more advanced training.

Venezuela’s Resident Ambassador His Excellency Cruz De Jesus Bello was treated to an exhibition by several players when he visited yesterday. He noted that he was pleased with the advancement of the attendees and announced that plans were being considered for exchange visits between tennis athletes from both countries.

Ambassador Bello remarked that his country is using sport to help celebrate its 200th year of Independence being commemorated in 2010. Arrangements are being made for a sports gathering between teams from Venezuela and St. Kitts and Nevis that will contest volleyball, football and cricket. Additionally, this year’s Independence Mini-Marathon which is hosted in September by the Embassy of Venezuela in honour of the Federation’s anniversary of nationhood will be made special, the diplomat promised.

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Charlestown, Nevis
May 17, 2010

Parents were key to the success of families. That was the view expressed by Social Development Minister in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) Hon. Hensley Daniel.

The Minister was at the time delivering a televised address on Nevis Television (NTV) on Friday as the island joined the international community in celebration of the annual United Nations International Day of the Family celebrated on May 15th.

“They have to make major decisions on a daily basis to safeguard the welfare and wellbeing of the family. They have to bear in mind they have the final responsibility for family stability. As goes the family so goes the society,” he said.

According to Mr. Daniel, if the family was accepted as the cornerstone of the society, all efforts should be directed at strengthening them and assured that the NIA would continue its efforts to ensure that sustained strong families was promoted.

He noted the importance for families to focus on the socialisation process in which children learnt the basic values of honesty, hard work, discipline and self respect, citing that too many children had missed out on learning those basic values.

“We have to look closely at what is happening to our young males in the society and make every effort to ensure that we teach these values. The behaviour of some of our children threatens the stability of the family,” he said.

The Social Development Minister also pointed to what he described as critical issues which threatened the family structure. They included poor parenting, discipline, economic status and education, a heavy focus on materialism and the lack of an enterprise culture.

He said it was important for families to continue their heavy investments in education, for it was the surest way for upward mobility of its members.

“The family has always to bear in mind that an investment in education brings the highest interest. As such the family has to set aside resources to provide for the education of their members from kindergarten to university.

“It is now widely accepted that more children are going to need assistance to move to higher levels of education and therein lays the challenge of the family members to provide for them,” he said.

Mr. Daniel also spoke to the issue of the non maintenance of children which he said continued to shake the foundation on which the family rested.

“This non maintenance thwarts family stability and leads to the impoverishment of the family and by extension the community. Sixty-five years ago the Moyne Commission identified the non maintenance of children as the single greatest threat to family stability in the region, it is still so today.

“The parents in the family need to make sure that they are not short changing today’s children. They have to listen to the children as much as they talk; they have to be consistent with rules and discipline; try to teach by setting examples; ensure that children are taught to respect other adults efforts at disciplining them; know what is happening in the lives of the children; listen to other adult’s criticisms, complaints and advice regarding children and praise, compliment and reward children much more,” he advised.

With regard to parenting, he said given the challenges of 2010, parents had to be willing to surrender their personal desires and make the required sacrifices to guide their children. They had to go the extra mile to prevent their children from descending to delinquency and criminality.

However, he said that parenting was a skill that did not necessarily come with giving birth and as such some parents were in need of help with guiding their children.

Mr. Daniel said it was important to pay attention to the adage which says that it took a village to raise a child. Therefore, it was important to return to the business of correcting children of others with the endorsement of parents.

Related posts:

1. Nevis Government Declares 2009 “Year Of The Family”
2. Nevis Minister Says “Give Children Values Not Valuables”
3. Parents Urged To Get Involved In Children’s Education
4. Nevis Premier Requests Parents Assistance
5. Nevis Parents Urged To Take Advantage Of Hearing Tests

Dr. Patrick Welcome – Chief Education Officer

Charlestown, Nevis
May 10, 2010

The Federation’s Top Educator called on school Principals in St. Kitts and Nevis, to seek divine intervention in their tasks as leaders in their various learning institutions, particularly when they felt helpless.

Chief Education Officer Dr. Patrick Welcome told the head teachers who were on Nevis to attend a one day workshop on Friday hosted by the St. Kitts Principals Association that in order to raise the standards, promote success in education, moved to identify the best practices and help the islands boys and girls, they had to collaborate and maximise resources.

“I know it is difficult to do it on your own and sometimes you are tired as leaders of your school, you don’t know what to do. I want to say to you, that in that critical moment we can address God because he is always there so he can give us the extra energy, the extra idea because we can’t do it alone. We understand how tired you are, how frustrated you are but you cannot give up now, you cannot give up on little boys and on little girls they will be taken over by the enemy and find themselves in drugs, find themselves with guns and find themselves in prison.

“We have a responsibility…to do what we can do to save our boys and girls and this document [the White Paper] gives us some clear directives where we should go as we endeavour to educate our nation to help everyone to be more productive and good citizens,” he said.

Dr. Welcome told the participants that it could no longer be business as usual neither could they afford to be confrontational to the detriment of the Federation’s young boys and girls. He applauded the St. Kitts Teachers Association for recognising the importance of uniting with their counterparts on Nevis.

“It means that as we come together, we agree on some practices, principles and procedures that we can all use as educators to help us to perform our duties well.

“We cannot afford to be confrontational while we continue to lose our boys and girls to the enemies of the world and so I want again to commend the principals because in recognising the changes in the system today, what we use to define as…today is quite different to that of yesterday. There are many distractions and disruptions and in order for us to grapple with these changes, we need to come together,” he said.

The Top Education Officer pointed to the success Nevis had made in the education system citing that the move by the Principals to learn from the Nevis counterparts was important and the White Paper had called for collaboration.

He also commended Education Consultant on Nevis Dr. Bronte Gonsalves who he said had worked over the years to push the education system forward.

“She recognised early a clock that this meeting of minds is critical and she worked extremely hard to make today a successful day,” he said.

Related posts:

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2. Education Workshop For St. Kitts – Nevis School Principals
3. Nevis Officials Call For Improvements In Education
4. St. Kitts – Nevis Leads Region In Early Childhood Education
5. Nevis Minister Speaks About Education With Young Cricketers