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| Mr Sydney Newton hands the sponsorship cheque to Mrs Sonita Daniel. |
Charlestown Nevis (July 3, 2005) -- The Nevis Co-operative Credit Union (NCCU), the major sponsor of the Environmental Awareness Programme organised by the Nevis Public Library Service, presented a sponsorship cheque of EC$2,000.00 Thursday afternoon to the outgoing Librarian, Mrs Sonita Daniel.
At a function held at the Charlestown Public Library, NCCUs General Manager Mr Sydney Newton said he was pleased to be associated with the Environmental Awareness Programme personally and also stated that his organisation considers it a partnership of significance.
The Nevis Co-operative Credit Union started sponsoring this programme back in 1994 as the major sponsor, and we have not relinquished on that commitment, which we had made to the Public Library and we intend to honour the commitment as long as the programme is run, asserted Mr Newton.
The 16th Environmental Awareness Programme, which opened on Friday at the Gingerland Secondary School, has its theme based on tourism and according to Mr Newton, We see linkages for the Credit Union with the Public Library programmes, tourism and the children. The children because we see them as the future of the Credit Union and wherever there is an opportunity to educate them, we are always willing to participate.
Librarian Sonita Daniel, who was on her last working day, as she proceeded on pre-retirement leave Friday, said that the programme began in 1988 with special assistance from the OECS Natural Resources Management Unit funded by the technical arm of the Federal Republic of German, GTZ.
The programme, Mrs Daniel noted, was developed in order to help young people become aware of their environment. Its aim is to develop knowledge and appreciation for the countrys resources, natural, human, physical and cultural. She added that another of its aim is to encourage and develop national pride and patriotic regard for the proper use and management of the resources.
But after the technical assistance and funding phased out from the OECS NRMU, we were able to get the financial support of the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union, and so their financial support has helped us to sustain this programme, said the Librarian.
According to Mrs Daniel, over the years, many young people in Nevis have passed the programme, and benefited immensely from the programme and they are now taking their places in the local, regional and international level, among them GIS Senior Technician and Editor (TV programmes) Mr Huey Sargeant.
There are three parts of the programme, the first that started Friday is geared for the secondary school students and it runs until Thursday July 7. Programme 2, which is targeted at primary schoolers, 5 to 8 years, runs from July 18 to July 22 at the Charlestown Secondary School, while Programme 3, which is targeted at primary schoolers, 9 to 12 years will run from July 25 to July 29 also at the Charlestown Secondary School.
The topics to be dealt with are: an overview of tourism in Nevis; careers in tourism; enhancing and protecting our tourism assets; the roles and responsibilities of young people in sustainable tourism development, noted Mrs Daniel.
The programme will be characterised by a variety of activities, which include illustrated lecture discussions, music and song, art and craft, games, cleanup project at Eden Brown Estate and Hamilton Estate, quizzes, poetry writing, culinary arts, demonstrations, hikes, walks through historic Charlestown, visits to hotels and for the secondary school students one day will be spent as an attachment to tourism establishments on St. Kitts and Nevis.
Resource persons are drawn from the Nevis Island Administrations Ministry of Tourism, the Nevis Tourism Authority, the Department of Tourism, hotels, tour operators and the members of the library staff, who will serve as coordinators and also resource persons in the area of art and craft.
