By: Precious Mills  

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 1^st March 2019)- Students of the Epworth/Maurice Hillier Memorial Junior School (of grades 5 and 6) recently went on an outing at Zack’s Historical-Cultural Library & Museum located at the Buckley’s Estate as part of the school’s activities for Black History Month. 

“We are here at the museum to see if we can connect anything with our past of our black people; people of the past whether the slaves or whoever,” said teacher Aurelstine Warner during a chit-chat with this reporter on Friday 22^nd February. 

He added: “At our school, we talk about both local and foreign people who have been outstanding. We talk about our national heroes, we talk about other black people who have contributed significantly to our nation and so on. We talk about people in the United States such a Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington; black people who have contributed to the world and their country on a whole.” 

Asked what impression he has gotten from  the students, Warner replied: “Well, they are excited, they want to know about their own because when they look at the TV generally most times apart from in the music and sports fields such as the NFL, you hardly see black people doing anything else but the children have to know that black people contributed in other areas.” 

His colleague Hilton Clarke is of the view that such outings are important for children in general nowadays. 

“At this time, it’s sort of critical..it’s important because children nowadays all they engage themselves in is their computers, phones as everything is inside [their homes]; they’re not active and so they shut off everything else…you see them on the streets they cut off everything else so when we bring them out to like these they get to interact with  what happened in the past and so it helps to let them know that there was another way of doing things; people enjoyed the outdoors a lot, and most of the time they (the children) come, they are excited, they enjoy the outdoors  even though if you leave them to themselves they will stay indoors all the time, so this helps.” 

He continued: “ It helps them in their social studies, it helps them in interacting with other people in a different setting and so it opens their minds to a lot of things and how things have progressed from that stage to now the technology is the master driver  so they will benefit in a number of ways by coming out to see the exhibits and at least some of the artefacts that have some historical worth.” 

As gathered, the school had a committee in place for the activities related to the celebration of Black History Month with a special focus on connecting with the past which included a display at school spotlighting notable black people. 

Clarke said the exhibit was mounted “so that the children can have a sense of identity and realise that black people have a lot of value and have contributed not only nationally and regionally but internationally.” 

Students also visited the National Museum during the month of February. 

Keeper of the library- museum Winston ‘Zack’ Nisbett, better known as the Doctor of Culture, said he was impressed with the interaction of the students. 

“I was very much overwhelmed with their questions and answers. They were able to get the whole historical and cultural overview of what the estate achieved in terms of the betterment of the workers through their wages. The inspiration and motivation from these children gave a sense of pride and joy and it was significant because I was able to relay to them about the importance of our history because it’s important that they know where they came from and as to where they are going.; they were thrilled.”  “I hope and trust that they were able to galvanise what was taught to them this morning because they’ll be putting it in their school work in terms of from an examination point of view. I was very impressed with them. They asked many questions about the sugar mills, historical leaders, persons who made us what we are today, legacy that was paved through some of them. That was significant. So, all in all it was a good bunch and I want the children to continue to be that inquisitive and willing to learn.”

By: Precious Mills  

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 1^st March 2019)-Participants and facilitators of a recently held two-day Environmental Sustainability and Conservation Leadership Training, held at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in the West Farm community, have been applauding the foundational interactive brainstorming and hands-on training exercise aspects of the first in a series of planned activities. 

For that back to back session, conducted on Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th February at the school’s Medicine Research & Pathology Building, topics explored included The Art of Decision Making, Strategic Approaches To Inspire Action and Building Your Own Harm Reduction Team.  

Funding was made possible through a grant received from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in collaboration with the USAID (United States Agency for International Development). 

As understood, a participatory approach has been chosen to bring persons from various sectors together to draft a comprehensive conservation plan which is aimed at reducing impact on the Narrows Marine Managed Area by engaging people, businesses and communities. Notably, the Narrows describes the channel which separates the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis which can be identified in the area of Booby Island. 

Participating institutions are Ross University, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Canadian Wildlife Health Corporation, Caribbean Youth Environment Network/Ripple Institution, Department of Environment, Department of Marine Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Youth Empowerment, Department of Tourism and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College. 

Lead facilitator was Luis Cruz, a Ross University professor and Researcher of Human Behaviour in positive ways concerning conservation and environmental sustainability assisted by Craig Stephen, Head of the Canadian Wildlife Cooperative and a professor of population health. 

Here is what some of the participants had to say following the workshop: 

Shaquana Jeffers 

“The workshop for me was a success and I’m proud to have been here. As a student at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College who studies Environmental Science, it was a learning experience for me as it covered some of the things that we need to know based on our syllabus. Also, seeing that I am a person who loves the environment and I’m also a big animal lover, it taught me how to be a leader or future leader in conserving these stuff so that our generation or my children or my children’s children can enjoy these things so it as a pleasure being here.”  

Locksley Edwards               

“As a Marine Conservation Officer coming to the workshop, I was looking to see how it would help to motivate myself and my peers as most of what the workshop addressed is what we do on a day to day basis on our jobs so seeing the same information was more of an encouragement and motivation to show that even though sometimes we may think that 90 per cent out of a 100 it [a plan] won’t work, at least we know there’s a 10 per cent that it will work. Overall, therefore, this workshop came as a driving force to motivate me in knowing to push for that 10 per cent and that percentage could increase…so if we could tap into the resources- which the workshop is offering as a tutorial tools  and knowledge- and we put this into an actual plan, the idea is to see if this plan will work, and so it would be an overall benefit that the workshop is progressive or positive and that the leadership skills that we  will learn will come out of each one of us and  benefit the environment, the community, jobs and us as individuals…” 

“It’s not going to be easy but it’s worth it” was a saying by Locksley which resonated with participants and facilitators at the end of the workshop. 

Mati Hanish (Ross University student) 

“For me, it’s really neat to see people from all over St. Kitts, different parts of the government and different careers all come together to start working towards one common goal, the way that everyone found something; a way they could contribute because people really started to adopt the idea that as individuals, they might not be able to save the world but as a group, they can really make a huge difference in St. Kitts and future generations. 

Victoria Cahill  

“For me being a new student here at Ross [University] and on the island, it was really interesting to see where everybody comes from, their take on the community, everybody’s different perspective, different parts of the government that they come from, how it works and how they think that they can come together to make their one common goal work. As Locksley said, one quote of the weekend was: ‘It’s not going to be easy but it’s worth it’, and everyone has something different that they can contribute to their one common goal and they’re all pretty motivated to make it work and it’s super exciting.” 

According to Professor Cruz, “the workshop was about how can we empower people to believe that they are leaders because that’s what this project is basing on; we all have powers to lead and that doesn’t mean we have to be loud or yell or move mountains, we can all influence others in our own ways, it could very small or it could be on large scales. So, we are using the science of behavior change; this is things that psychologists use, sociologists use and in environmental conservation [and] biology, and even though we are not any of that, we are veterinarians and we work on health, and health is not just the absence of disease, it’s about social factors, environmental factors and biological [factors]. It goes from how do we exercise, how much sleep we have, what decisions we do that affect our health so this project is how do we better understand human behaviour and how can we find positive ways to influence based on theory and knowledge that many people have been working on.” 

He continued: “It is also about using a concept which is called Harm Reduction which in simple terms [identifies] is there is a problem?, [and if] there is a very big problem and acknowledge that we are not going to get rid of it right away but there are little things that we can start doing  with the conditions that we have now and even though there are many people who may think differently, we need all those different state of minds to come up with one vision, one main goal that we share; something that we value and then we are going to increment steps, little goals that are going to be build up into the major goal so that at the end I think it went extremely well.” 

Professor Cruz commended the participants for having taken the time out to attend the workshop. He said overall it was good whilst noting that the “participation and engagement was very high” on day two. 

“I think we planted the seed that ‘yes we can be leaders and yes it is possible’ and as Locksley said ‘It’s not going to be easy but it’s worth it’, and if we have that mindset just by achieving this [then] that seed, that idea in our brains that it is possible that ‘I can get others onboard’ because other people might be thinking the same thing but it takes someone to show them that it is possible and the more of us showing that by example the more we are going to get and the better results,” he told. 

Professor Stephens was also pleased. 

 “I was really happy to see different people coming together to not only learn about how to become more effective conservation leaders but actually come with a plan going forward to work together. That was an exciting outcome of the day. I’m also really excited to help Ross University work with the community and the citizens of St. Kitts to collaboratively help the… resources of the island,” he commented. 

A roundtable discussion is the next scheduled session slated for Wednesday 6^th March followed by a conservation tools and stakeholder engagement on Saturday 23^rd March.  A catamaran tour of the Narrows with stakeholders is expected to take place in April, a communications workshop in May with outreach efforts in June, July, August and September.