Home Blog Page 175

Gov’t restores capacity of Essential Oils Cooperative

Essential Oils Spices Cooperative Cheque

The Dominica Labour Party Government is putting the essential oils and spices cooperative back to work.

Tropical Storm Erika left the industry significantly affected as several of the Bay Oil distilleries on island were utterly destroyed.
On Friday, June 10th, Hon. Minister for Commerce, Enterprise and Small Business Development, Roselyn Paul handed over a $100,000 cheque to the Dominica Essential Oils and Spices Cooperative for the reconstruction of four distilleries in the south of the island.
The small business Minister says this move is in-keeping with her Ministry’s thrust to improve the manufacturing industry.
“We know how badly the cooperative was affected by TS Erika and if they were affected then the exports and their ability to earn foreign exchange was also affected. Manufacturing is not one of our major industries; we are more involved in primary production so we are happy to embrace, protect, preserve and ensure the continuance of the Dominica Essential Oils and Spice Cooperative.”
The four distilleries which will be reconstructed are located in Petite Soufriere, Fond St. Jean, Grand Bay and Bagatelle.
President of the Dominica Essential Oils and Spices Cooperative, Phillip Guiste, says there are 20 distilleries across the island; however these initial four are located in the areas of highest production.
Guiste expressed sincere thanks to the Ministry and Government for this cash injection. He says the significant contribution will assist in getting the industry back on its feet while restoring the livelihood of many in the south.
He said to the Hon. Minister, “Our entire distillery [in Petite Savanne] on which we were dependent for our survival was completely washed away so we want to tell you, we are very happy that you have come to our assistance. With your help and what we can add as a cooperative, we are sure to return to full capacity in the next few months…We look forward to working with you when we construct our new distillery.”
In-keeping with Government’s call to rebuild stronger after Tropical Storm Erika, the cooperative intends to reconstruct modern distilleries like the destroyed Petite Savanne facility with the capacity to produce much more.
Bay Oil“Our main distillery in Petite Savanne was the largest producer of that oil. It gave better yield per pound of leaf hence why we have very little p
Presently, production of essential oils brings in excess of $6m annually.roduction now,” he said.
The Dominica Essential Oils and Spices Cooperative has a membership of over 500 with about 300 who are currently active.
With this money, Guiste is confident that the industry can resume production at full capacity in the next few months.
There is a total of 22 distilleries on the island of which the Cooperative hopes to refurbish 10.
The Dominica Essential Oils and Spices Cooperative has been in existence since 1968.

New Security Features In Barbados Passport

Barbados Passport

The Barbados Immigration Department has introduced a newly-designed Ordinary Barbados Passport incorporating a range of improved security features with added security protection.

Acting Chief Immigration Officer, Wayne Marshall, has advised that all previous versions of the Ordinary Barbados Passport remain valid until the expiry date.
According to Mr. Marshall, Barbados has always employed stringent measures aimed at preserving the integrity of its passport, including the issuing of machine readable or biometric-enabled passports since 2004.
The Barbados Passport ranks number one in a listing of the Caribbean’s top 10 most powerful passports, according to the visa restriction index of Henley and Partners, a global leader in residence and citizenship planning. It currently ranks 26 in the world, the highest ranking passport in the CARICOM region. In the region generally, only Argentina, Brazil and Chile have a higher ranking.
Mr. Marshall noted that with the introduction of the new security measures, it will become even more difficult to falsify the passport.

Affordable Housing plays a pivotal role

Case against BVI National

Affordable Housing plays a pivotal role in the country’s economic growth

The business that creates jobs for citizens is not Government but Minister of Works and Housing said he is extremely delighted with the fact that here in Antigua and Barbuda, the Government’s Affordable Housing project has created hundreds of new jobs for the citizens and residents since the project started just over a year ago.
The Hon. Eustace “Teco” Lake added “In recognition of the private sector’s role in driving growth, the Government’s economic strategy is focused on improving opportunities for businesses by providing certain concessions that will allow local businesses to be able to compete internationally.
Futuristically, my intention for the ongoing housing project is the construction of executive type housing that will seek to in many ways strengthen the vision for the free movement of people within the region as a single economic space.
Households with modest means need safe, suitable housing that they can afford, and when housing is affordable, low-and moderate income earning families enjoy increased spending power, Minister Lake continued.”I am pleased to confirm that this project which encompasses a total of three construction sites to date namely Derdge Bay, Cooks Estate and Paynerts has touched hundreds of families through the creation of three hundred and eight (308) new jobs that would not have otherwise been created,” Minister Lake added.Affordable Housing plays a pivotal role 1
Lake further added that householders are able to put nutritious meals on their table, afford necessary medical care and services, and provide reliable and proper education for their children, thus affordable housing creates jobs directly as well as indirectly.
“My Ministry along with the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) will be working closely to complete the road network at the active construction sites and ensuring that electricity and water are installed at all three sites so as to boost productivity, Lake concluded.To date, the local economy has been stimulated with an expenditure of over of twelve million, three hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars ($12,392,000) to construct houses that are now at different stages and range between 1 percent and 95 percent completion.Affordable Housing plays a pivotal role 2
The Minister who is also responsible for National Infrastructure pointed out that with the assistance from the National Housing Development and Urban Renewal Company Ltd ., his Ministry is undertaking several other infrastructural developments that are accountable for over 300 new jobs.

SLTB fetes and celebrates top North American Travel Agents

Steve Simmons from Honeymoon Inc. from Buford, Georgia
The overall top selling Travel agent for the US for 201 Steve Simmons from Honeymoon Inc. from Buford, Georgia

Top performing booking travel agents and agencies who aced the Preferred Agent Saint Lucia Specialist [PASS] education and training programme have been presented with their Piton Awards.

The winning agents successfully completed a four step programme to become part of the Piton Awards programme. The top sellers were recognized monthly and at the end of the year the greatest scoring agents and agencies qualified for the Piton Awards.
They were flown to Saint Lucia from June 9th to 13th to experience Saint Lucia’s adventurous side through a variety of land and sea based excursions. The agents also receive a real taste of the island through planned culinary activities at leading island resorts.
The top winners from across Canada and the United States were honored at the second annual Piton Award Creole Carnival Gala which took place at on Saturday June 11th at Sandals Halcyon.
The winners are:
Canada
Pauline Blacoe of Shine Travel.Ca
Cathy Wassermann of Wasserman Retreats – Vision Travel
Nancy Miklian of Travel Sensations (Downtown) Inc.
Joanne Sammut of Cruise Holidays of Foresthill
Summer Harris of Flight Center Summerhill
 USA Midwest
Nancy Finn of Island Getaways LLC
Niki Rakowitz of CARE Travel
Lisa Hoppe of Lisa Hoppe Travel
Scott Jones of EZTravel Pad
Janis Anne Murzanski of
Janis Anne Travel Inc.
USA Mid-Atlantic
Mark Hennigan of Dreamers Travel
Jennifer Doncsecz of VIP Vacations
Sally Jane Smith of Travel Smith
Thomas Varghese of Travel Tom
Sue Oschanski of Honeymoon Expo Center
USA Northeast
Veronica Kastukevich of Custom Travel
Carolyn Waffle of Carolyn Waffle Certified Travel
Laura Felgate of Exclusively Honeymoons
Susan Lange of Travel Solutions
Janet Simicic of Ship to Shore Travel
 USA West Coast
Kari Mollan of Stellar Travel
Molly Sumption of Molly’s Caribbean LLC
Penny Sheldon of Penny Sheldon Travel
USA South-East South-West
Steve Simmons (Megan Whelan) on Steve’s behalf Honeymoons Inc.
Debra Helms of Roatan Charter Inc.
Lynn Thomas of Alpha World Travel
Dawn Grey of4 moons Travel
Terry Heck of Terrys Travel
The overall top selling Travel agent for Canada

Steve Simmons from Honeymoon Inc. from Buford, Georgia
The overall top selling Travel agent for the US for 201
Steve Simmons from Honeymoon Inc. from Buford, Georgia

Skills training to achieve educational excellence

SIF

Belize Social Investment Fund continues to empower teachers & parents with skills training to achieve educational excellence.

Certification Exercises will be held in the Northern Districts for 20 teachers and 25 parents who successfully completed training in Early Childhood Education, Special Education, Classroom Management, Leadership, Parenting Skills, Intermediate Computer Skills and First Aid Training.
Teachers and parents in this regard, will receive Certificate of Completion and Participation at ceremonies scheduled for 3:00 pm on Monday June 13 at Ranchito Community Centre, Corozal; and at 2:30 pm on Thursday June 16 at Carmelita Primary School, Orange Walk.
Hence, it is within this context, that these teachers are now equipped with enhanced educational leadership skills and competencies, which will significantly contribute in making a positive educational impact in nurturing the development of students. To this end, the future leaders of Belize will have the opportunity to develop socially, culturally, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically and intellectually.
The Belize Social Investment Fund in recognition of forging strategic partnership as it relates to capacity building of Belize’s human resources; collaborated with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. With respect to the 18 weeks training for parents, SIF also collaborated with the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation, and Poverty Alleviation in facilitating the Parenting Skills training through the Community and Parent Empowerment Programme (COMPAR).
The Early Childhood Education training project is an initiative undertaken by Belize Social Investment Fund in contributing to the empowerment and strengthening of the education system in Orange Walk and Corozal. It is being funded by the Government of Belize as a Sub-Project under the Basic Needs Trust Fund 7, Caribbean Development Bank.
BSIF is government’s poverty-reduction flagship addressing the basic needs of Belizeans through socio-economic initiatives and community empowerment.

Blood connects us all, share life, give blood

Blood Donor

Shootings, stabbings, domestic violence, road accidents, hemorrhaging during child birth, dialysis and the list can go on, are all connected.

All these tragic usually sudden events require one precious resource to produce
miraculous lifesaving outcomes for the victims. Blood connects them all.
Blood is at the heart of the healing treatment required to save lives on a
daily basis in a hospital setting. As the world prepares to celebrate and
recognize the invaluable contribution of blood donors on “World Blood Donor
Day”  June 14th, the St. Lucia Blood Bank heightens its appeal for persons
to donate blood to help replenish their constantly depleting blood supply.
Medical Technologist at the St. Lucia Blood Bank, Karen Louis explained the
procedure a donor goes through before blood can be accepted.
“Giving blood we say are the 3 S’s. It’s Safe, it’s Simple, and it Saves
lives. So when you come in that’s the simple part. We take your
demographics, your name, age, date of birth. We go into the most crucial
part which is your interview part but before that we check to see if you
have enough blood to give. We give you a slight prick on your finger, take
a drop of blood and drop it in our solution. If it sinks to the bottom in
10 seconds or less that means you’re eligible to become a  blood donor. Our
interview segment, we need to ask you a few questions about your health and
life style. We need to get an overall picture of the blood donor. If you’re
accepted then we go into the fun part, the part when you save a life.  You
go onto our chair, you have your professional staff in a clean well
ventilated environment and we withdraw the unit of blood so it’s Safe, it’s
Simple and it saves lives.”
This year the St. Lucia Blood Bank has teamed up the Bureau of Health
Education to heighten awareness and encourage persons to donate blood. In
keeping with this thrust public education and sensitization product such as
testimonials from recipients, a panel discussion, public service
announcements, community outreach sessions and posters are among the
communication techniques being employed.
The Medical Technologist stressed that giving blood is everyone’s business
the message is for the community to get involved not simple an individual.

“Especially during world blood donor day we want to thank our voluntary
unpaid donors for the life saving gift of blood that they have given. That
unit of blood can help persons in maternal and child care,  massive trauma
and injuries, patients going through dialysis, cancer patients, patients
going through amputations, our diabetic patients. That one unit of blood
can help save up to three lives and especially during World Blood Donor Day
we want to encourage persons to continue to give blood.”
The Blood Bank hopes to motive persons who have never donated blood before
to become blood donors. Louis stated if someone donates blood from age 17
-70 one would have donated 159 times and these units of blood separated
into three components could actually save 477 lives.
“The need for blood is all year round we definitely encourage St. Lucians
to come an give blood especially during this time. Carnival is coming up
and this is our low period. So we want person to deposit their gift of life
before the carnival and the festive season begins. A blood transfusion may
arise at any point in time, at 10 in the morning or 10 at night and we need
to make sure that we have all blood types so that if the situation arises
we have an adequate, safe blood supply to provide to patients in need.”
During our visit to the St. Lucia Blood Bank we met Mr. Martin Paul, a
first time blood donor, who felt motivated to donate blood to his sick
brother who disparately requires a blood transfusion. He had a simple
message to anyone who would listen.
“I am trying to save a life. I would like people to do the same. Try to
save somebody’s life even if it’s not your brother, try to save another
person’s life. Everyone can make a contribution and give blood. I will
return in September to give blood again.”
World Donor Day was established in 2004 and serves to raise awareness of
the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for
their voluntary live saving gifts of blood.  The theme for this year’s
World Blood Donor Day is *”Blood connects us all, share life, give blood.”*

Tilapia farming workshop

Tilapia farming

Agriculture project cooperated by Belize and Taiwan held a successful tilapia farming workshop in Stann Creek district.

In order to improve the Tilapia Business in Belize, the GOB-ROC Aquaculture Project implemented a “Wonderful Tilapia Farming Workshop” in Independence High School on 8 June, 2016.
The project period of GOB-ROC Aquaculture Project is February 2012 to February 2017. Its total budget amount is US$ 2.5 million dollars which is funded by the Republic of China (Taiwan) Government. The principle project objective is to enhance the tilapia production industry in Belize, to improve the economic condition and nutrition of Belizeans living in rural areas.
There were more than 20 aquaculture producers and related professionals participating in this important event, which included members from the important international organizations of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the private sector (shrimp farmers) and official agricultural specialists.
During this workshop, the participants received important lectures for tilapia farming, which were: “Pond Construction and Planning for Tilapia Cultivation”, “Pond Management for Tilapia Cultivation” and “Marketing & Organization Strategies for Tilapia Cultivation”. Furthermore, the participants also got the “Secchi disk” and learned how to use it to measure the water quality of their ponds. In the last hour, the participants had the opportunity to learn and practice how to get their own real cost of their farming tilapia. With this information, the producers can know how to improve their product and still have reasonable profits from the selling of farmed tilapia.
As of today, there are still many Belizean consumers who have never tried the perfect taste of farmed tilapia, which is very different from the tilapia from the river; they have no muddy taste.
After this workshop, the tilapia producers will enhance their producing level and improve the quality and quantity for their farmed tilapia; so there will be more Belizean consumers who can have the various benefits from eating delicious farmed tilapia.
Tilapia farming
 
During this year, the GOB-ROC Aquaculture project has held two workshops to improve the tilapia business for small scale producers in Belize. In the rest of this year, there will be two more workshops in different districts. So if you are interested to have your own farmed tilapia business, these two other workshops could be your excellent opportunity.
To get more information, please email to: (secretary.aquaculture@agriculture.gov.bz) or call to 652-8767.

Media Accreditation for CPL 2016 Opens

CPL

The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are delighted to welcome members of
the written, radio, photographic, television and online media to apply for
accreditation for the forthcoming CPL campaign.

Applications will close on *Monday, 20 June 2016* at the close of business.
*Hero CPL Fixtures: *http://www.cplt20.com/fixtures
*How to apply:* All media are required to fill out an online application
form with key contact information, as well as specifying which matches they
intend on covering. Please fill out the CPL Media Accreditation Application
form <http://www.cplt20.com/media>.
Because of expected high attendances across all of our venues Media
Centres, you are asked to only apply for matches that you will definitely
attend.
*Next Steps:* Successful applicants will notified by email and can then
collect their Official CPL laminate pass at the first game they are
covering.
*News Distribution:* All accredited media who provide their Cell (Mobile)
numbers will join a specifically designated CPL Whatsapp group, which will
be the fastest source of issuing team bulletins in relation to changes of
training/media opportunities during the tournament.
*Visa Information:* It is the responsibility of each media representative
to organise their own entrance visas for entry into the Caribbean or United
States of America. However, if a Visa Letter of verification is required,
this can be provided.
*Important Information:* Details on how to access photographs, team
information and daily round-ups will be circulated in due course.
*CPL Finals Media Accreditation:* Will open in early July
We look forward to welcoming you across our seven venues in Barbados, Fort
Lauderdale, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia and Trinidad &
Tobago at CPL 2016.
 

Confiscation of Compressed Marijuana in Northern Belize

Compressed Marijuana

Confiscation of Compressed Marijuana in Northern Belize

Compressed MarijuanaBelmopan. June 13, 2016.   The Ministry of National Security informs the public that a Belize Defence Force patrol was conducted in the area of Patchacan on 11 June 2016. This patrol led to the discovery of 85 pounds of Marijuana and the detention of three male persons namely: Edilberto Ku, 44-year-old Belizean Vegetable Vendor from Patachacan Village; John Triminio, 59-year-old Belizean Farmer from Xaibe Village; and Gabriel Chan, 28-year-old Belizean Mason from Patachacan Village.
These men were handed over to the Corozal Police Station where they were processed and charged. The marijuana is believed to have a street value of over $7,000 Belizean dollars.

Economic and cooperation relations among Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico

CARICOM
CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Trade and integration officials from member countries of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), gather in Georgetown, Guyana, this week for talks on economic and cooperation relations among Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico.
The Meeting on Wednesday and Thursday at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is geared at placing at the forefront, the importance of trade, investment and cooperation relations of Mexico, with Central American and Caribbean countries.
The opening ceremony on Wednesday 15 June will feature remarks by Hon. Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Business, Guyana, Mr. Javier Gordon Ruiz, Director, Relations for Integration and Cooperation, Permanent Secretariat of SELA, and Mr. Joseph Cox, CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration.

Representatives of the media are invited to cover the following:
Event: Opening Ceremony, Regional Meeting on an Assessment of the Economic and
Cooperation Relations of Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico
Date: 15 June, 2016
Time: 9 o’clock
Venue: CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Georgetown, Guyana
Kindly make every effort to be present at least 15 minutes before the ceremony for ease of security clearance and timely coverage of this event.

1...174175176...269Page 175 of 269
Audio Theme