BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jul. 17.2018 – IN their continued effort to further reduce the incidences of children being harmed or the unfortunate demise of a child by fire, vehicular accident or drowning or even through crime, the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire and Rescue Services (SKNFRS) are presently hosting its 16th Annual Summer Safety Programme.
The programme seeks to equip the nations’ youth with the safety and prevention tools needed to reduce the likelihood of these incidents. The five-day programme began yesterday (Jul 16) under the theme “Protecting the Future of Our Federation Through Fire Safety Awareness”.
Spread across the Basseterre Fire Station, the Edgar T. Morris Primary School in Tabernacle and the Sandy Point Primary School, some 400 children will be exposed to vital information about the fire safety, water safety, traffic safety, disaster preparedness and resisting crime and violence.
The SKNFRS has partnered with other national security departments and disaster management agencies including the St. Kitts Coast Guard, the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the National Emergency Management Agency to ensure the children, aged 5 to 12 receive the best teachings from the professionals in these areas.
Speaking with the Programme’s Coordinator, Fire Sub Station Officer Lesroy Caines, he explained that this is the second year the programme had been running for five days as opposed to the usual three days, noting that the change was made in an effort to add more content.
“We thought it best to increase the number of days in the programme because we wanted to include more topics and this extension was welcomed by the parents who send out their children each year. We wanted to make the programme more productive,” he said.
He added that they saw the need to include disaster preparedness as a topic to educate the children about hurricanes and other natural disasters that they can be prepared for as well as resisting crime and violence to “start educating them from an early age about the importance of staying away from a life of crime”.
Caines explained that although registration is already closed, they will not turn away any child that wants to join in because the information being imparted is necessary for all.
The children will not only leave the programme with an abundance of knowledge, they will also leave with tangible goodies from the many sponsors of the Summer Safety Programme including vouchers for gas and groceries and other monetary donations to be used towards the purchase of school supplies.
The programme was created by former Fire Officer Natalie Fough. Caines stated that since its inception, there has been significant reduction in the incidence of fires caused by children, death of children by fire, false alarms raised by children and death of children by drowning.
He added that the programme has proven to be very successful and it is the intention of the SKNFRS to continue educating the Federation’s children whenever possible.
