BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas has received yet another prestigious honour with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) bestowal of a Lifetime Achievement Award on the distinguished leader.
The presentation ceremony took place on Friday (June 12) at the 36th annual Governments of the Caribbean State Ball in New York. Due to his hosting of the Sixth PetroCaribe Summit in St. Kitts, Douglas was unable to accept the award in person, but his daughter, Dr. Andrea Douglas, accepted it in his stead.
A release from the Ministry of Tourism informed that the Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honour bestowed by the CTO. It further stated that Douglas was accepted “in recognition of his outstanding political leadership, his longstanding and effective advocacy in the field of HIV/AIDS, and his tireless efforts to improve the quality of life for all Caribbean people”.
In a letter read during the ceremony, the Prime Minister expressed gratitude at his selection and reaffirmed his intention of empowering the people of the region.
“I am…humbled to have been recognised by your organisation for my work…over the past three decades as a teacher, medical doctor, parliamentarian and through to my current time as Prime Minister, all I have ever wanted to achieve was to help bring an improved quality of life to as many of our people as possible.
“I therefore thank all those of you who have made this award possible tonight. I accept it with pride and with the appreciation that my work is not yet done…I promise you that this recognition of my service will further help to encourage me to continue to push forward energetically and purposefully on behalf of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Caribbean,”
The CTO Lifetime Achievement Award is the latest of many honours Douglas has received throughout his public service career. He was also the recipient of the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Peace Award and the University of the West Indies’ American Foundation’s Legacy Award.
