Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 15, 2021 (SKNIS): Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Paul Queeley, explained the role, functions, duties, and powers of the Department of Consumer Affairs during the popular radio and television show ‘Working for You’ on April 14.
He said the “Consumer Affairs Department was established to inform educate and to empower consumers to protect themselves when conducting transitions in the marketplace. We are the only agency with the responsibility of consumer advocacy within the Federation and in light of this, the department has been given the mandate of ensuring that the rights of consumers are defended and that a suitable and fair marketplace is maintained.”
“Since the inception of the department in 2002, the issue which dominated the scope of the work of the department was price control, which was geared at protecting the most vulnerable in our society hereby allowing them to purchase basic food items at reasonable prices,” he said. “With this aspect dominating the large portion of the workload, other issues relating to consumer protection was somewhat neglected.”
“With changes in the global economy, and the overall focus being diverted from price control to that of trade liberalisation coupled with the closure of the government supply office in 2013, the focus of the department has been adapted to current economic realities and the main responsibilities of the department now are engagement in market research, providing complaint resolution services, ensuring all businesses comply with the laws of the Consumer Protection Act of 2003, offering educational programmes to the public so that they may have the necessary information as to their rights as consumers, and monitoring government price control items such as the 23 categories of the food basket items and essential drugs,” said Director Queeley.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 1st, 2021 (ZIZ News) On Thursday, residents of Her Majesty’s Prison set to be released soon, completed an 8-week Stages of Change Substance Abuse Treatment Group Session.
The aim of the sessions was to assist them in making more informed decisions when reintegrated into society.
The program was facilitated through the National Council on Drug Abuse Prevention, which was proposed by Director Karimu Byron-Caines.
This is the second such program that was done at the prison. The first occurred in 2019 with a visiting councilor from Taiwan through the Ministry of Health, who then trained the management staff at the National Council.
Commissioner of Police Terrance James spoke to the significance of the training sessions and his vision for the institution.
13 inmates successfully completed the programme.
According to James, this and other similarly oriented programs are aimed at reducing the number of repeat offenders in the country.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 01, 2020 (SKNIS): On Thursday, December 03, 2020, St. Kitts and Nevis will observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is an observance designed to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development.
Anthony Mills, a member of St. Kitts and Nevis Association for Persons with Disabilities (SKNAPD), said that the differently-abled community often faces many hardships due to a lack of support infrastructure and systems.
While appearing on the November 25, 2020, edition of the radio and television programme Working for You, Mr. Mills, who is a former president of the SKNAPD, highlighted that a common issue that needs to be urgently addressed is the abuse of disabled individuals.
“A lot of the time, what happens is that people with disabilities will encounter violence against them and not report it,” he stated, noting that most of it come from family members who are supposed to love and protect each other.
He said that emotional abuse was prominent “just because maybe they [differently-abled individuals] can’t do things the way other people would do it,” Mr. Mills added.
Financial abuse was also cited. The misconception here is that differently-abled persons are incapable of managing their money.
Physical abuse is also common. Mr. Mills cited an incident with a young man with an intellectual challenge who works at the R. L. Bradshaw International Airport.
“Someone hit him in his head just because he’s mumu. That’s what they call it [his disability], mumu,” Mr. Mills stated, citing a colloquial term used to describe someone who is considered daft. The matter was reported to the police, but no charges were filed.
Mr. Mills said that this was extremely disappointing and called for greater empathy and support for the differently-abled community. He noted that changes must be made at all levels of society from the policy-making level to the ordinary man and woman on the street.
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