It was an environment of joy and excitement as Christmas bells rang and Santa appeared at the Public Service Union on Friday 13th, December, 2013 bringing gifts to children between the ages of 2 to 12.
About 200 hundred children from Tarish Pit and other parts of the island gathered at the PSU on Friday to participate in the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Holiday Gift Project for the Caribbean’s underprivileged children.
The program is designed to reach out to FCCA’s partners in the Caribbean by providing holiday gifts to children in foster homes, or other institutions that could benefit from the project.
Speaking at the presentation, Tourism Minister Ian Douglas, explained that small gestures such as these reinforce and reemphasize the partnership that exists between the cruise lines and destinations like Dominica.
“We advocate and we encourage more of those types of gestures because although it may look simple to you but bringing the Christmas cheer to so many children in Dominica really strengthens the bond of friendship that exists between all our destinations in the Caribbean not just Dominica and the FCCA.”
Douglas added further that cruise shipping and tourism in general, is not an activity that only concerns those who are directly involved in tourism such as the Minister of Tourism, or the cruise lines.
Child Fund Caribbean Representative, Martha Fagan, stated that her organization works with children from birth up to the age of 24 since they believe in the theory of change.
“We believe that if children are healthy and secure, then they can grow up to be educated and confident children and of course that will evolve into skilled and resourceful youth. We implement programs to ensure that we achieve that level of change.”
Below are some photos of the event.
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