St. Kitts and Nevis Welcomes Team From Global Support Development
Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 27, 2023 (ZIZ Newsroom): The federation has officially welcomed a team from Global Support and Development (GSD), a humanitarian organization whose mission is to rapidly respond to disasters in collaboration with at-risk communities and support them to prepare for future disasters to the federation.
The welcome ceremony was held on Tuesday morning (July 25, 2023) at the Arrival Hall at Port Zante to celebrate the collaboration between the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and GSD.
The team will cooperate with St. Kitts and Nevis through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Nevis Disaster Management Department (NDMD) for two weeks of capacity-strengthening exercises.
The group arrived on the MV DAWN, a state-of-the-art vessel that will be operating in the Caribbean region for the duration of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.
During the ceremony CEO of GSD, Michael Court spoke of the importance of the initiative with the support of MV DAWN.
“Communities in the Caribbean know better than most the importance of the relationship with the maritime environment, as well as too often the threat that climate change poses for small island states. GSD believes that the maritime connection and relationship provides a unique humanitarian support opportunity to island nations. Dawn is the manifestation of that belief, a vessel built and specifically configured to support our mission to support partners dedicated to that purpose and dedicated to the region.”
During his remarks, Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Terrence Drew described the initiative as timely as the world and more specifically St. Kitts and Nevis face the effects of climate change.
“With respect to why this is so timely, as we know the planet is going through climate change, it means therefore that as the climate changes, the propensity to have severe storms, increases significantly, and we have been striving to keep the temperature on the planet below 1.5 as it rises. However, it is very unlikely that we will achieve that in the time that we set out as a world to achieve it. What does that translate into? That translates into the opportunity for greater storms, mainly hurricanes here in St.Kitts and Nevis and so, it is not a matter of if, but is a matter of when.”
He reiterated the importance of partnerships such as the support provided by the MV DAWN vessel and its team to assist the federation to mitigate a colossal loss of life in the event of a powerful storm.
“Collaboration like this with the MV DAWN vessel is extremely important because what they would offer to us is that response that we would need immediately following a storm of such magnitude to save lives, to help us to get back to normalcy as quickly as possible. And so therefore, I want to welcome Dr. Michael Court, the CEO of GSD, and your team here to St. Kitts and Nevis.”
Following the Prime Minister’s remarks there were gift exchanges between the Captain of the MV DAWN and the CEO of SCASPA and also the Prime Minister and the CEO of GSD.
Training exercises are scheduled to begin on St. Kitts this week.
These exercises include establishing a comprehensive baseline bathymetric survey, which will assess the characteristics and profile of the seabed, enhancing the region’s understanding of its maritime infrastructure.