Tag Archives: caribbean

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PAHO Recommends New Targets to Reduce Salt Consumption in Caribbean

CMC- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has announced new salt reduction targets for food products to help people in the Americas, including the Caribbean, reduce consumption of sodium.

PAHO said that after adoption by countries, the new targets will require regional manufacturers to reformulate processed and ultra-processed food products, where most of the sodium consumed in diets comes from.

PAHO said its revised 2022-2025 regional salt reduction targets focus on reducing the sodium content of commonly consumed processed foods, such as bread, cereals and grains, processed meats and dairy products.

The new targets are a more detailed update of a first set developed in 2015 and present maximum sodium “thresholds” for 16 categories and 75 subcategories of food products to be reformulated, PAHO said.

“Countries agreed to a global target of reducing salt consumption by 30 per cent by 2025, but the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation by creating new challenges for prevention and control of risk factors due to confinements and significant changes in lifestyles, including an increase in consumption of unhealthy products,” said Dr Anselm Hennis, PAHO’s Director of Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health.

“It is critically important that governments accelerate their efforts to achieve this goal.”

In the region, salt intake ranges from 8.5 to 15 grams per person per day, well over the 5 grams per day upper limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), PAHO said.

It said reducing salt consumption can prevent hypertension and cardiovascular disease, the leading causes of death in the region.

PAHO pointed to evidence, which shows that more than half of deaths from cardiovascular disease are attributed to high blood pressure, “something that can be exacerbated by excessive salt consumption.”

“If we are to achieve substantive changes, we need these targets to be adopted with a regulatory rather than voluntary approach,” said Fabio Da Silva Gomes, PAHO’s Regional Advisor on Nutrition and Physical Activity.

“Doing so is the only way countries will be able to reduce average salt intake in the population by 2025, given that sales of processed and ultra-processed products with excessive sodium content continue to grow.”

Da Silva Gomes said the updated targets support regulatory policies already advancing in the region to reduce the supply and demand of products with excess sodium.

Those include front-of-package warning labels that point out when products contain unhealthy quantities of salt, sugar and fat, as well as regulation of marketing of these products.

PAHO said it has developed the new targets in conjunction with the WHO Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Policy for Chronic Disease Prevention at the University of Toronto and the Ontario University of Technology, both in Canada, and the Technical Advisory Group on Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease through Population-wide Dietary Salt Reduction.

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WORLD VIEW: Biden Meets Pope, G-20-Climate Change Vs. Fuels, Myanmar Torture, More

 

Oct 29, 2021

Alternate text

The Associated Press

The Rundown

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ROME (AP) — Just hours after he arrives in Rome, President Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis on Friday at the Vatican, where the world’s two most notable Roman Catholics plan to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and poverty….Read More

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ROME (AP) — Leaders of the Group of 20 countries gathering for their first in-person summit since the pandemic took hold will confront a global recovery hampered by a series of stumbling blocks: an energy crunch spurring higher fuel and ut…Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicaid issues are turning up as winners in President Joe Biden’s social agenda framework even as divisions force Democrats to hit pause on far-reaching improvements to Medicare. …Read More

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NEW YORK (AP) — The fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on a movie set has put a microscope on an often-unseen corner of the film industry where critics say the pursuit of profit can lead to unsafe working conditions. …Read More

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SYDNEY (AP) — The U.S. State Department expressed outrage and demanded an investigation on Friday after The Associated Press reported that Myanmar’s military has been torturing detainees in a systemic way across the country . …Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

SALAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Mina Ahmed smears a cement mixture to strengthen the walls of her war-ravaged home in rural Afghanistan. Her hands, worn by the labor, are bandaged…Read More

More than one world leader says humanity’s future, even survival, hangs in the balance when international officials meet in Scotland to try to accelerate efforts to curb cli…Read More

ROME (AP) — One of President Joe Biden’s toughest meetings at the G-20 summit may be with the leader of America’s oldest ally: France. Biden and French President Emmanuel Ma…Read More

The term “metaverse” is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination — so much so that one of the best-known internet platforms is rebranding to signal its…Read More

 

 

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Vincentian Akley Olton a Winner in PlayGo Emerge Film Competition

Melissa Wong
Loop

Akley Olton, a filmmaker from St Vincent and the Grenadines has emerged as one of the winners in the recently concluded PlayGo Emerge film competition.

The competition was held under the theme “Celebrate the National Pride of Your Country” with creators encouraged to celebrate their unique cultures using short original videos no longer than 15 minutes which they were required to submit via the PlayGo app.

Olton captured a prize with his documentary “Hairouna, Land of the Blessed” in the Professional category.

Olton is a visual artist and filmmaker with over 10 years of experience. He makes his living as a cinematographer and recently started to develop a small audiovisual and multimedia production business in St Vincent and the Grenadines called Island Rebel Media.

Speaking with Loop News, Olton says “Hairouna, Land of the Blessed” is a feature-length documentary project about a young guy from the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines who goes on a journey into his ancestry.

The trailer for “Hairouna, Land of the Blessed”

Olton says the submission made to the competition was the beginning of the film, like a prequel. Now they intend to take the resources from this competition and invest it into developing the next stage of the project.

“Ultimately, we want to film in Central America because that is where the surviving descendants of the indigenous Garifuna people that were exiled from St Vincent to create St Vincent… their descendants live in Central America so we want to continue that journey and bring some of that culture back home to St Vincent as a bigger celebration of our true identity, not just the colonial one.”

Olton decided to enter the PlayGo Emerge film competition after someone sent an invitation for him to apply. He says because in St Vincent and the Grenadines there is not much of a film community, he had to look outside and connect with other filmmakers in T&T, Barbados and Jamaica.

He says the competition is a big deal for him within the Caribbean and St Vincent and the Grenadines and thanked Digicel for the opportunity and giving filmmakers across the region a beacon.

So how did his filmmaking journey begin? Olton says he started initially as a camera operator but before that was a camera enthusiast.

“Really after I went to some of my studies I figured out how powerful this medium is not to just showcase if something looks beautiful but to go beyond that and include a meaning and a message.

I developed a sense of why it is important to preserve some of these things that we call authentically Caribbean. I discovered that was important and I figured with film I could do that.”

Now he wants to be a part of it at the highest level possible and figure out the global industry.

Olton tells Loop News that he saw there was an increase in content from around the world and saw there wasn’t much coming from the Caribbean.

“I too was tired of looking on Netflix and not seeing stories like ours. I felt like there were interesting things in our reality that deserved this attention and I wanted to do it at the highest level possible to figure out how to be a part of this global film industry and how to bring it to the Caribbean or interact with it.

I mean St Vincent and the Grenadines is where they filmed one of the first Pirates of the Caribbean so it’s not as far-fetched.”

In terms of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ film sector, Olton says it is in a space that is emerging but he believes the island itself lacks the legislative infrastructure to facilitate a film sector. He notes people are trying and in SVG there is the Hairouna Film Festival.

Olton’s advice to other aspiring filmmakers in St Vincent and the Grenadines is to remember it’s not going to be an overnight success, it takes perseverance.

Olton just returned to St Vincent and the Grenadines from the Camden International Film Festival as an IF/Then x Hulu fellow where he presented a work in progress screen of my next short film Mabulu.

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Report: Violence Against Brazil’s Indigenous People Increased in 2020

BRASILIA, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Violence against Brazil’s indigenous people increased last year as land disputes and invasions of their reservations rose and the government failed to provide protection, the Catholic Church’s Indigenous Missionary Council said on Thursday.

Its annual report on violence against the descendents of Brazil’s original inhabitants said there were 182 murders of indigenous people in 2020, compared to 113 murders in 2019, a 61% surge.

There were 263 reported land invasions, an “alarming” increase of 137% over incursions on indigenous territory the previous year.

The report blamed the government for failing to protect indigenous communities, while pushing legislation that would open their reservations to commercial mining, oil and gas exploration and the building of hydroelectric dams.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who once praised U.S. Army cavalry colonel George Armstrong Custer for clearing the prairies of indigenous people, has criticized reservations for occupying valuable land and has said he will not grant another inch of land claimed by indigenous communities. He is backed by powerful farm interests.

Critics say his comments have emboldened illegal miners, squatters, and loggers, whose invasions of reservation territories have exacerbated the spread of the coronavirus. Over 800 indigenous people have died from COVID-19, according to official figures that only count deaths on reservations and not among indigenous people in Brazil’s cities.

Their land claims have been paralyzed. Of the 1,289 reservations in Brazil, 832 are waiting for official recognition.

The second year of Bolsonaro’s government saw “the deepening of an extremely worrying scenario in terms of indigenous rights, territories and lives,” the report said.

The presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brazil has a population of 900,000 indigenous people, of which one third have moved off reservations to urban areas.

Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

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Electoral Court Clears Bolsonaro, No Toleration for Fake News in 2022 Poll

SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Brazil’s authorities will not tolerate the dissemination of fake news in next year’s elections, a Supreme Court justice said on Thursday after an electoral court acquitted far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of such a crime in the 2018 election.

People found to be spreading fake news may face prison and any candidate involved could be banned from running, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said.

Moraes, who will head the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) next year and took part in the Bolsonaro ruling, said “everyone knows” fake news was spread during the 2018 elections, but there was no definitive proof of wrongdoing.

Moraes is also the Supreme Court justice in charge of sensitive investigations involving Bolsonaro and his allies. He said courts are better equipped today to handle cases involving false news dissemination.

“We are not going to allow these digital militias to try again to destabilize the elections, the democratic institutions, backed by spurious and undeclared financing,” Moraes said from the bench.

Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Writing by Ana Mano; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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Hundreds of Sea Turtles Wash Up Dead in Mexico

BBC- At least 300 sea turtles have washed up dead on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Preliminary exams suggests that the olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) drowned, an official with Mexico’s environment ministry said.

The official said they had probably become tangled in illegal fishing nets in the high seas or in abandoned nets known as “ghost nets”.

Olive ridley turtles are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The IUCN says that their population is decreasing and that they are listed as vulnerable because they only nest in a small number of places.

The turtles were found washed up on Morro Ayuta beach in Oaxaca, on Mexico’s western coast. The beach is one of the sites where olive ridley turtles come to lay their eggs.

All of the dead animals were females, turtle expert Ernesto Albavera Padilla told local media.

It is not the first time a large number of olive ridley turtles has been found dead in Oaxaca. In 2018, fishermen found 300 of them entangled in fishing nets.

Mexico banned the capture of sea turtles in 1990 and there are stiff penalties for anyone killing them.

Officials said Mexico’s navy would join environmental authorities in their investigation of the deaths.

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Study: Vaccination Does Not Reduce Risk of Passing Covid to Others

Research reveals fully vaccinated people are just as likely to pass virus on to those they share a home with

Science correspondent
Guardian

People who are fully vaccinated against Covid yet catch the virus are just as infectious to others in their household as infected unvaccinated people, research suggests.

Households are a key setting for the transmission of Covid infections (pdf), with frequent prolonged daily contact with an infected person linked to an increased risk of catching the virus.

However, questions have remained – including the true proportion of household contacts who become infected from an initial case, the duration of their infection, and the impact of vaccination on the risk of transmitting the virus and the chance of catching it.

Now a study has revealed that while vaccination against Covid is crucial to preventing severe disease and death, even fully jabbed individuals catch the virus – and pass it on.

Writing in the Lancet, researchers from a number of institutions including Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) report how they analysed data from 204 household contacts of 138 people infected with the Delta variant.

Of these contacts, who were recruited within five days of their household member showing symptoms and were tested daily for 14 days, 53 went on to become infected, 31 of whom were fully vaccinated and 15 were unvaccinated.

The results suggest even those who are fully vaccinated have a sizeable risk of becoming infected, with analysis revealing a fully vaccinated contact has a 25% chance of catching the virus from an infected household member while an unvaccinated contact has a 38% chance of becoming infected.

However, the figures do not shed light on the severity of illness, while the team cautions these figures fall within a range of possible values, meaning the exact size of the difference is unclear.

The analysis further suggests that whether an infected individual is themselves fully vaccinated or unvaccinated makes little or no difference to how infectious they are to their household contacts.

The team add that the peak level of virus in infected individuals was the same regardless of whether they were jabbed or not, although these levels dropped off more quickly in the vaccinated people, suggesting they cleared the infection sooner.

“This likely explains why [fully vaccinated] breakthrough cases are as infectious to their contacts as [unvaccinated] cases” said Prof Ajit Lalvani, chair of infectious diseases at Imperial College London and an author of the study.

The team also looked more closely at those who were fully vaccinated.

“What we found, surprisingly, was that already by three months after receipt of the second vaccine dose, the risk of acquiring infection was higher compared to being more recently vaccinated,” said Lalvani.

“This suggests that vaccine-induced protection is already waning by about three months post-secondary,” he added.

Lalvani stressed that vaccination, including boosters, was important, noting that unvaccinated people cannot rely on the immunity of those who are fully jabbed for protection.

Should fully vaccinated individuals become infected, he added, they remain protected against severe disease and death, and tend to have only a mild infection.

However, when asked if the data suggested booster doses should be offered sooner than six months after a second jab, Lalvani said the emphasis should be on encouraging those already eligible to take the extra dose.

Prof Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the work, said the estimates of high rates of transmission among household contacts underscored the need to vaccinate teenagers and give boosters to vulnerable people.

“The vaccinations of younger persons to slow down transmission in the community, and the boosters to directly protect against severe infection and hospitalisation,” he said.

Kao suggested the findings also added weight to calls for the introduction of further measures in the UK to tackle the spread of Covid, adding the move could also mitigate the risks posed by other respiratory infections including flu.

“The result that vaccinated individuals who become infected appear to pose a similar infection risk to others also emphasises the need for continued or improved non-pharmaceutical interventions to further slow down transmission rates and ease hospital burdens over the winter,” he said.

 

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UK May be 1st Nation to Prescribe E-Cigs On Its National Health Service

Man smoking an e-cigarette
E-cigarettes contain nicotine and are not risk-free. ‘The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke,’ the NHS says. Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP
Health editor
Guardian

E-cigarettes may soon be prescribed on the NHS to help smokers quit under radical plans by ministers to slash smoking rates in England.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published updated guidance that paves the way for medicinally licensed e-cigarette products to be prescribed for tobacco smokers who want to stop smoking and switch to vaping instead.

The move could see England become the first country in the world to prescribe medicinally licensed e-cigarettes. Almost 64,000 people die from smoking every year. About 3.6 million, or 7% of adults in Britain, are thought to use e-cigarettes.

Doctors, medical leaders and health campaigners welcomed the move. “I am convinced this will be a gamechanger,” said Sir Norman Lamb, the former health minister who chaired the Commons science and technology committee’s inquiry into e-cigarettes in 2018. His committee concluded that there would be “significant benefit” to having medicinally licensed e-cigarettes that could be prescribed, he said.

Prof Linda Bauld, the Bruce and John Usher chair in public health at the University of Edinburgh, said it was “excellent news”.

“While there is good evidence that e-cigarettes available as consumer products can help smokers to quit, we also know that up to one in three smokers in the UK has not tried these devices,” she said.

“Smokers have concerns about safety and misperceptions about the relative risks of e-cigarettes compared with tobacco. For some, cost is also perceived as a barrier. The option of having approved devices that could be prescribed would reassure smokers about relative risks and also assist in reaching those least able to afford e-cigarettes.”

E-cigarettes contain nicotine and are not risk-free. “The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke,” the NHS says – though these chemicals are found at much lower levels in e-cigarettes.

Public health experts have also raised concerns about young people in particular becoming hooked on vaping despite never having smoked. Tobacco companies have turned to creating the devices.

However, expert reviews have concluded that regulated e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking. A medicinally licensed e-cigarette would have to pass even more rigorous safety checks, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

Manufacturers can now approach the MHRA and submit their products to the same regulatory approvals process as other medicines available on the NHS. If an e-cigarette gets MHRA approval, doctors could then decide on a case-by-case basis whether it would be appropriate to prescribe an e-cigarette to a patient to help them quit smoking.

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, said the evidence was “clear” that e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than smoking tobacco and that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking for good. “The updated guidance on licensing requirements we have published today is a strong first step towards availability of safe and effective licensed e-cigarette products.”

a person vaping
What are e-cigarettes and are they safe?

The NHS said the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) would have to give the green light to e-cigarettes before they could be rolled out on the health service. A spokesperson added: “The NHS will not be prescribing e-cigarettes unless Nice recommends them for use.”

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature death. While rates are at record low levels in the UK, there are still about 6.1 million smokers in England. There are also alarming differences in rates across the country, with smoking rates in Blackpool (23.4%) and Kingston upon Hull (22.2%) vastly higher than rates in wealthier areas such as Richmond upon Thames (8%).

E-cigarettes were the most popular aid used by smokers trying to quit in England in 2020. The number of e-cigarette users grew from about 700,000 in 2012 to 3.6 million in 2019, falling to 3.2 million in 2020 before rising again in 2021 to 3.6 million.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said: “Opening the door to a licensed e-cigarette prescribed on the NHS has the potential to tackle the stark disparities in smoking rates across the country, helping people stop smoking wherever they live and whatever their background.”

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Biden in 50m Pfizer Order, Anti-Vaxxer Poll, Florida Gov. Sues US Pres., World Stats

PFIZER SAYS BIDEN HAS ORDERED 50M MORE VACCINE DOSES FOR KIDS

Pfizer and BioNTech announced in a press release Thursday that they will be providing the U.S. government with 50 million additional pediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccinations.

According to the companies’ statement, the move is meant to help prepare for vaccination needs for children under the age of 5, should the vaccine eventually be approved for children that young.

Pfizer says that with the inclusion of this order of doses, the U.S. government has secured 600 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines since the start of the pandemic.

What’s next: Pfizer has stated that it expects to deliver all the doses by the end of April.

The announcement comes after a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel recommended approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as 5 on Tuesday.

The trial data for those aged 2 to less than 5 and for those aged six months to less than 2 years old is expected to be available late this year or early next year.

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US: ONE PERCENT OF ADULTS WOULD LEAVE JOB DUE TO VACCINE MANDATE: POLL

One percent of all adults in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll said they’ve left a job due to COVID-19 vaccine requirements as more workplaces institute mandates.

The KFF Vaccine Monitor for October released on Thursday determined that out of unvaccinated adults, just 5 percent left their jobs because of the requirements, “despite widespread news reports” of workplace vaccine mandates driving resignations.

Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to report knowing someone who left their job due to a vaccine mandate, with almost a quarter of all adults saying they know someone who’s quit.

A quarter of workers reported their employers instituted a COVID-19 vaccine mandate — an increase of 16 percentage points since June.

Expected mandate response: The vaccine requirements come as the Biden administration moved forward with its plan to institute a vaccine-or-test mandate for all employers with at least 100 employees.

Almost half of unvaccinated workers, 46 percent, said under that type of mandate, they would opt for weekly testing. Eleven percent said they’d most likely get the vaccine while 37 percent, representing 1 percent of all adults, said they would leave their job.

But without the weekly testing option, a majority of unvaccinated workers, at 72 percent, said they would quit their jobs, representing 9 percent of all adults. Seventeen percent said they would get the vaccine in that situation, amounting to 2 percent of all adults.

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Florida’s DeSantis sues Biden over federal contractor vaccine mandate

© getty: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday sued the Biden administration over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal contractors, the latest in a series of GOP attacks on President Biden‘s pandemic response efforts.

The complaint, filed in federal district court in Tampa, calls the policy a “radical intrusion on the personal autonomy of American workers,” and seeks a preliminary nationwide injunction to block it from taking effect.

It names as defendants President Biden and a handful of federal agencies, including NASA, the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget.

“It’s important for us to take a stand,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “Tossing people aside is just not something we can tolerate here in the state of Florida, so we are going to do everything we can.”

Deadline, but not a cliff: The policy is set to take effect Dec. 8. On Wednesday, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said the purpose of the mandates isn’t to punish people, and noted the deadlines for federal employees and contractors “are not cliffs.” He also indicated there will be levels of flexibility, and nobody will lose their jobs immediately: federal employers and contractors will be expected to educate, counsel and accommodate their unvaccinated workers to persuade them to receive the shot before terminating them.

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

246,325,262

Deaths:

4,997,353

Recovered:

223,188,175
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

[back to top ↑]

Latest News

October 29 (GMT)

Updates

  • 274 new cases and 9 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 4,503 new cases and 357 new deaths in Mexico [source]

The post Biden in 50m Pfizer Order, Anti-Vaxxer Poll, Florida Gov. Sues US Pres., World Stats appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

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November is ‘Men’s Month’ on Nevis

NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (October 28, 2021) — The Department of Gender Affairs in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) announced on October 28, its calendar of activities planned for November dubbed Men’s Month, in observance of International Men’s Day on November 19. This year’s theme is “Better relations between men and women.”

Mr. Mario Phillip, Gender Affairs Officer at the department, while inviting the public to participate in the activities said they are pleased to provide the public with opportunities to show support for the men on Nevis.

“When people hear of gender, they normally think primarily of women, but we at the department we focus on both genders – male and female, and so we are happy to bring to you the number of events that we would be having in November to recognise the men of Nevis…

“We invite you to participate in all of these activities where you can and show your support. Remember on November 19th wear something blue and rally behind the men of Nevis,” he said.

The first activity will be a church service on Sunday, November 14, at the Brown Hill Wesleyan Holiness Church, at 10 a.m. an event which Mr. Phillip deems important to allow men to emphasise the spiritual aspect of their lives.

On Tuesday, November 16, a Mentorship Programme for boys will be launched at 9 a.m. at the department’s conference room at the GMBC building on Government Road. There will an introductory programme for prospective mentors where they will learn what is required of them and how they would be impacting the lives of boys.  

The next activity is slated for International Men’s Day on Friday, November 19.  On that day the public is invited to wear blue.

“It’s a blue affair, and so show your support for the men of Nevis by wearing blue… Each of us we are here on this earth because of a man, our father, but we would have encountered other impactful men along our life’s journey.

“Show your support for them and recognise them by wearing blue and we are inviting businesses as well. Decorate your space with blue balloons, blue curtains, what you can to show men that you are rallying behind them,” Mr. Phillip said.

Later that day, the department will award deserving men at an awards ceremony at the Nevis Performing Arts Centre at 7:30 p.m.

“This award is to highlight and recognise the men in our communities who would have done outstanding work in bettering the relations between men and women. So they would have supported men and women, boys and girls to ensure that our society is strong and stable and prosperous…

“We are looking at men who would be instrumental in shaping not only boys but also girls; not only women but also men to ensure that we have individuals, strong families, and those men will receive their special recognition at the awards ceremony,” Mr. Phillip explained.

There will be a Health and Wellness Walk and a 10k Bike Race on Saturday, November 20.  Those activities are designed to pay special attention to the physical aspect of men with the support of women. The walk will begin from Charlestown to the by-pass road and back into town. The route for the bike race is from Charlestown to Cotton Ground and back. Both activities will begin at 6 a.m.  Prizes will only be awarded to the male participants.

Tuesday, November 23 will be the culmination of the training for the Boys’ Mentorship Programme which will be held at the department’s conference room at 9 a.m. It will be followed by the Men Can Cook Grill Master Competition on November 27.

Men’s Month 2021 celebrations will culminate with a bike relay hosted by SKN Moves Nevis Chapter. It will commence at 6 a.m. in Charlestown proceed onto the by-pass road and back into town.

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