Warship crew assists in school beautification

Commanding Officer Tony Williams
Commanding Officer Tony Williams

A team from British warship, HMS Severn, has assisted in the beautification of at least two schools on island.

The ship, which is docked at the Deep Water Harbor at Woodbridge Bay, has been in Dominica since Friday as part of its scheduled visits in the Eastern Caribbean.

The UK-based River Class Offshore Patrol Vessel is currently based in the region, in order provide to reassurance, conduct Counter-Narcotics tasking whilst also being prepared to conduct Disaster Reconnaissance and Reporting following any natural disaster, for which she is fully prepared.

“We have been in Dominica since Friday, a relatively short weekend visit … what we have done is we have hosted a number of groups, we have conducted some visits with the local fisheries offices which is our normal trade when we are back in the UK,” Commanding Officer, Tony Williams, told Dominica News Online on Monday. “We have helped with the visit of the local sea cadets and units and also reached out to couple of Pre-Schools … Charlotte Preschool where we have painted up the fence in really good colours, blue and yellow.”

He said crew members also helped in beautifying the Canefield/Massacre Primary School by painting classrooms to brighten them up.

He describes his first visit on the HMS Severn as “a fantastic experience, a very warm welcome and lovely people…”

The ship leaves Dominica on Monday for Aruba.

Education Minister Petter Saint Jean
Education Minister Petter Saint Jean

Meantime Education Minister, Petter Saint Jean, who addressed a ceremony held at the Charlotte Nursery on Monday thanked Commander Williams and crew for their contribution to Dominica.

“And that is why this morning I am honoured to be here because Commander Williams, you recognize the importance of the investments that are made in developing our future generation,” he said. “What you have done over the past weekend is indeed in a very powerful, profound way is saying to us that you are prepared to invest in future generations of this beloved country.”

According to him about three years ago government took a decision to focus on early childhood development through Preschools and Daycare.

“We took a decision then that if we were to address the challenges that confront our small economy in an uncertain global climate, if we were to address the issue of poverty and poverty alleviation then we needed to zoom in on early childhood education,” he noted. “And so the state took a decision that all of our early childhood facilities would be paid a monthly subvention to ensure the fees will not be too exorbitant, that would be a deterrent to individuals accessing.”

Saint Jean continued, “We took this one step further and the government recognizing that we had a reducing primary school population we created space at our primary school facilities where there was unutilized space to accommodate the little ones. “

In an effort at addressing the issue of access he stated that, “our hope is that within the next year or so we would have 100 percent access to early childhood education.”

“In fact we are almost there, pretty close to 100 percent access for every Dominica child,” he said.

Crew members interact with student of the Charlotte's Preschool
Crew members interact with students of the Charlotte’s Preschool

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5 Comments

  1. anonymous2
    April 21, 2015

    There’s nothing like good PR to hide true purpose.

  2. April 21, 2015

    Nice going here! I hope that we all can appreciate without any reason for criticizing.

    Instead, let us give thanks to our Lord, God, Eternal Spirit, Christ of Love and Holiness, for the people whom He causes to care for our Dominica–the Nation which He made to stand tall enough, that He will walk her mountain peaks–guiding and protecting us, who are the God fearing people of her Land.

  3. The Facts
    April 20, 2015

    Great job, HMS Severn crew. A big thank you!. Sorry you had to leave so soon.
    Safe sailing and return to UK.
    Please return soon, if you can. You will always be remembered, appreciated and welcome.
    God speed!

  4. April 20, 2015

    Thanks commander williams for your contributions and the beautification of our schools. Just a friendly reminder, Sir harris paints sells ” Red Paint”.Bon voyage and become back soon every little bit helps.

  5. Merlot
    April 20, 2015

    Look at all what they’ve accomplished over a relatively SHORT period of time….meanwhile it takes the government YEARS to even formulate a plan for any kind of project on the island. You all should be ASHAMED.

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