BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, November 27, 2020 (MMS-SKN) — Health conscious walk enthusiasts are back on the road tomorrow Saturday November 28 for the latest edition of Prime Minister’s Monthly Health Walk which starts at 5:30 am from the bus stop in Bellevue Village.
Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, who has all along taken seriously the fight against the scourge of NCDs among the public through practical ways, is sending out a special invitation to the regular walk participants and their friends to join him tomorrow for the walk.
The walk which traditionally takes the participants along the Island Main Road from the bus stop in Bellevue through the various picturesque Constituency #7 villages, Tabernacle, Mansion, Christchurch, Bourryeau, Lodge, Lodge Project, and ends at Ottley’s hardcourts has been attracting new participants each month.
Prime Minister Harris, who also has lead responsibility for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS issues in the CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet, has noted that the walk is an effective tool in the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and that he is encouraged by the regular, and high turnout for the monthly health walks that he organises.
The now hugely popular Prime Minister’s Monthly Health Walk that is currently being held under the umbrella of SKN Moves, was initiated in April 2007 by the Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris. It was then known as the Dr Harris Constituency Number Seven Health Walk.
“The idea of the health walk came about because most of the constituents wanted to see more of their representative while he at the same time, being a man of the people needed to have a first-hand opportunity to personally know everyone in the constituency,” noted Mr William Phillip, who has been taking part in the health walks all these years.
According to Mr Phillip, health walk has taken a whole new meaning as today it is no longer an event for the people of Constituency Number Seven taking into consideration the fact that the initiator of the health walk is the Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and is also CARICOM’s lead spokesperson on human resources, health and HIV matters.
“Dr Harris has been taking the matter of healthy lifestyles seriously ever since the idea of the health walk was actualised over thirteen years ago, and today although he is still our Area Parliamentary Representative, he is the Prime Minister of all and he wants his message to go out to all,” noted Mr Phillip. “Put on your sneakers and join us tomorrow for this great walk.”
]]>BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, September 13, 2020 (MMS-SKN) — When the Caribbean Wellness Day walk took off on Saturday morning September 12 from the Cenotaph at the War Memorial in Basseterre under the SKN Moves umbrella, among the participants were over 90 employees of the firm Kajola-Kristada Ltd.
Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, who also has lead responsibility for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS issues in the CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet, was among the hundreds of walk enthusiasts who took part in the walk that had taken off at 6:10 am.
“The fight against NCDs will only be won if a collective approach is taken to make it a habit for persons to take part in regular physical activities, as they are critical for the success of the fight,” said Prime Minister Harris at the end of the walk. “It warmed my heart to see the large turnout today, and also to see a large contingent of workers from Kajola-Kristada Ltd who participated in the walk.”
Caribbean Wellness Day is celebrated by CARICOM countries on the second Saturday of September as part of a unified response to promote health and prevent and control the epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). This year it was celebrated under the theme ‘Power Through Collective Action’ with the sub theme ‘Stronger Together 2020”.
“The more people we have involved engaging in any form of physical activity, be it walking, running, swimming or biking will result to their wellness, and I want to thank the management and staff at Kajola-Kristada Ltd for coming out to participate in this event,” said Dr Harris.
The Honourable Prime Minister, who has been organising monthly health walks since April 2007, added: “Other corporate entities should borrow a leaf from Kajola-Kristada Ltd and engage their members of staff in more physical activities as this is a sure way of reducing loss of valuable man-hours as a result of sickness. This will ultimately result in increased productivity.”
According to Mrs Faith Caines, Safety Co-ordinator at Kajola-Kristada Ltd, approximately 92 workers took part. Three of their staff members rode on a pick-up truck distributing water to the walk participants, and Ms Nerissa Wilson had a loud hailer through which she kept on advising and updating the walk participants.
“Apart from just walking, every year we celebrate Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Awareness week,” said Mrs Caines. “We do this every year, and so when I saw the email from the Caribbean Wellness people I decided to merge with them – we partner with them and incorporate my Safety Awareness week in the walk. So that is why we are here today.”
Health-conscious walk enthusiasts had assembled as early as 5:30 am at the War Memorial, and the gathering was called to order by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Delores Stapleton-Harris, at 6:00 am. After a prayer, the participants were taken through a warm-up aerobics session by fitness guru Mr Wayne Liddie.
The participants who also included Minister of Health the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett, and her husband Mr Alexis Nisbett, Deputy Speaker Senator the Hon Dr Bernicia Nisbett, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mr William Vincent Hodge, set off at 6:10 am.
They walked, and some including Dr Delores Stapleton-Harris and Dr Benicia Nisbett sometimes breaking into runs, through Irish Town Bay Road to downtown Basseterre and on to New Town Bay Road, and on to the Central Bank roundabout from where they took the Kim Collins Highway, the F.T. Williams Highway, and at the roundabout with the St. Peter’s Road they walked through Fry’s Village, and back to the Cenotaph.
The walk which is part of the independence celebratory activities was held under the SKN Moves umbrella, as had been noted by Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris who on August 29 during Prime Minister’s Monthly Health Walk had advised that every activity people were doing that they try to bring it to the extent possible under the branding of the SKN Moves.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 10, 2020 (PM Press Assistant):A high-level meeting on upscaling the global response to the coronavirus pandemic took place this morning, September 10, 2020. The virtual global meeting was co-hosted by the President of the European Commission, Dr. Ursula von der Leyen and the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus.
Prime Minister Dr. the Hon Timothy Harris, as the CARICOM lead head on matters of Health, HIV and Human Resource Development, represented the CARICOM Community.
The objectives of the meeting were:
Prime Minister Harris was supported at the meeting by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws.
The ACT-Accelerator is the proven exit strategy for the world. Four tools have been identified for successfully controlling COVID-19. These are vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and strengthening of health systems.
Prime Minister Harris told 128 participating countries and organizations that CARICOM wishes to be an active participant in the global response at the political, technical and economic levels, and welcomes its inclusion in the launch of the Council for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).
]]>BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, August 30, 2020 (MMS-SKN) — Prime Minister’s Monthly Health Walk which traditionally takes participants from Bellevue to Ottley’s hard courts, in Constituency Number Seven, was back with a bang on Saturday August 29 with Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris among participants who donned SKN Moves T-shirts.
“Part of the effort of promoting the St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) Moves, which we launched last year, is to bring greater consciousness as to the individual ability to impact positively at their health,” said Prime Minister Harris at the end of the walk.
Also taking part in the walk which had started at 6:00 am from the bus stop on the Island Main Road in Bellevue Village included the Minister of Health the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett, and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Delores Stapleton-Harris.
“We had asked that every activity people were doing, to try to bring it to the extent possible under the branding of the SKN Moves – in other words demonstrating that St. Kitts and Nevis is at work, and has brought into the CARICOM initiative of getting our people into great physical activity as a way of their having greater control over their health,” commented Dr Harris.
The Honourable Prime Minister, who has lead responsibility for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS issues in the CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet, explained that since part of the mandate is to bring everything under the national umbrella of SKN Moves, it was okay to promote it by donning the SKN Moves paraphernalia.
“Of course physical activity was a critical aspect of it, as it improves the chances of overcoming obesity and other non-communicable diseases, and so this is one aspect of it,” observed Dr Harris. “Dieting is also a critical element but the physical activity is what we are encouraging throughout the length and breadth of the country.”
The turnout was very impressive as persons who are accustomed to accompanying Prime Minister Harris, who is also the Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven, traversing the entire constituency from Bellevue bordering Constituency Number Six to Ottley’s which borders Constituency Number Eight, had been eager to take part in the walk.
“Today we had a successful, large turnout and we are very happy to see that our first event after the period of lockdown has been as successful as it was,” said Dr Harris. “It really was a national effort – we had presentation from all regions of St. Kitts. I was delighted to have Ambassador Kevin Williams, one of our new ambassadors, our Ambassador Ian Patches Liburd, the Taiwanese Ambassador His Excellency Tom Lee, and our Deputy Speaker Senator the Hon Dr Bernicia Nisbett.”
The Peoples Labour Party (PLP) assumed the role of promoting and organising the Prime Minister’s Health Walk since 2018. Master of ceremonies at the start of the walk on Saturday was PLP’s National Chairman Mr Warren Thompson. Other party officials included National Secretary Ms Myrtilla Williams, Party National Organiser Mr Alexis Nisbett, National Women Representative Mrs Sonia Henry, and Deputy National Chairman Mr Craig Tuckett.
At the Peoples Labour Party Constituency Branch Executive level, present were Chairman of Number Seven Branch Mr Lenworth Harris, Chairman of Number Five Branch Mr Glenville Mills, Deputy Chairperson Number Five Branch Ms Marsha Lewis, and general membership from all the branches.
“So to have a wide cross-section as we have had, people of all walks of life, people from all regions, to me it was very encouraging this morning, including the representatives of the Spanish community, because our message ‘health wellness’ must in fact resonate through all alleyways and byways of St. Kitts and Nevis,” concluded Prime Minister Harris.
]]>
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, August 8, 2020 (MMS-SKN) — Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris is again reiterating that health comes first and is advising that the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will prosper only if its people are healthy, observing that the health of a nation becomes its wealth.
“Your health must be given priority,” said Prime Minister Harris on Saturday August 8 at the Frigate Bay lawns as he congratulated hundreds who had participated in the SKN Moves anniversary Health Walk. He observed that if persons are not healthy they will not be able to accomplish much in anything that they do.
Dr Harris, who also has lead responsibility for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV/AIDS issues in the CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet, told the walk participants: “The advice is that we make health our number one priority. The health of the nation becomes the wealth of the nation, because only if we have healthy people working and contributing to the best of their abilities can we generate a prosperous country and stand stronger and safer.”
The health walk, which started at the Caribbean Cinemas parking lots in West Basseterre and ended at the Frigate Bay lawns, was a collaboration of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Health. It was held as part of the first anniversary of SKN Moves which was launched last year on August 9 at West Independence Square.
Coordinating the entire exercise was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Delores Stapleton-Harris. Participating included Minister of Health the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett, Chief Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws, NCDs Programme Coordinator in the Ministry of Health Dr Marissa Carty, District Medical Officer for Parsons to Newton Ground and Deputy Speaker Senator the Hon Bernicia Nisbett, Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Education Mr William Vincent Hodge, and Mrs Carla Astaphan who heads the St. Kitts and Nevis National Reparations Committee.
Also participating in the walk was Resident Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan His Excellency Tom Lee and Mrs Lee, and members of the embassy staff. Prime Minister Harris thanked Ambassador Lee “for participating, and for the contribution which your government has been making into the health sector and beyond the health sector to the socioeconomic life of St. Kitts and Nevis.”
According to Prime Minister Harris, CARICOM Heads of Government had recognised that one of the region’s key challenges was non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at a time when the world at large was focused on communicable diseases such as HIV, TB and so on.
“Out of the concern with respect to obesity in the region, the notion of our people becoming more involved in physical activity was given birth to, and out of that we had the Caribbean Moves being developed, and each member state within CARICOM was required to form a branch so that we know that the regional approach to challenging obesity was being supported in every member state,” said the Honourable Prime Minister.
He said that last year around this time the government of St. Kitts and Nevis engaged in the formation of St. Kitts-Nevis Moves, and later in the year went to Charlestown and formed the Nevis branch of the SKN Moves. He noted he was happy that after one year, the country has kept the movement alive.
The government, he added, has plans to broaden the movement for it to get more persons involved in it. He requested persons that whatever they do, when they are engaged in physical activities that they wear their SKN Moves shirts to show that the association with which they are participating that they too are in support of the goals of SKN Moves.
]]>