BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, November 25, 2021 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris continued his engagements with institutions and establishments that contribute positively to the delivery of service within his constituency of St. Christopher Seven on Thursday, November 25. This initiative formed part of the prime minister’s celebratory activities in recognition of his 28 years as the Elected Representative for the area, Belle Vue to Ottley’s.
As part of today’s activities, Prime Minister Harris and his delegation of supporters paid a visit to the Tabernacle Daycare Center where he was given a tour of the facility by its Supervisor, Ms. Kimoy Charles. At the end of the tour, Dr. Harris presented Ms. Charles with a care package of items that would be beneficial in the daily operations of the center.
The honourable prime minister then visited the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force Forensic Laboratory, which is located on the premises of the Tabernacle Police Station. There, Director of Forensics with the Police Force, Ms. Latoya Lake-Marshall, updated Prime Minister Harris on some of the functions of the laboratory.
“Right now in St. Kitts our lab is ahead. Our lab caters for fingerprinting, which is trace evidence, so we are ahead. We have proved ourselves with our solvability rate, even though we have to send away for DNA testing overseas. We have a very close relationship with the UK, and now I am pushing so that we can train our people here to do DNA testing,” Ms. Lake-Marshall said.
Prime Minister Harris, in turn, commended the Ms. Lake-Marshall and her entire staff for the critical work they are doing in the ongoing fight against crime in St. Kitts and Nevis.
He said, “I want to commend the civilian, and of course, the police staff for the contribution they are making to the resolving of crime in our country. We aim to be the country with the lowest number of crimes in the world, both on a per capita basis and in absolute terms, and we certainly can work hard to achieve that. The loss of one life is one life too many in a small country, and while we have to be realistic that we are [living] in a sinful world and there will always be crime, we want to maintain them to the lowest level for the peace, the comfort and tranquility of our beautiful twin island Federation.”
The final institution visited by Prime Minister Harris on his tour on Thursday was the Sylvia Garnette Primary Health Care Facility. Dr. Harris used the opportunity to thank Community Nurse, Paula Boddie-Dia, as well as the other nurses and staff of the health facility for their genuine and hard work in ensuring that the best possible care is given to the people of Tabernacle and the surrounding communities.
The prime minister said, “I was particularly impressed as we fought the COVID-19 battle— and we continue to fight—that your staff here, including yourself, devoted your Saturdays, and Sundays when necessary to come and to ensure that we could offer strong protection to people who had determined that they were going to protect themselves, their families and their loved ones. You had persons not just from this community but you had persons who had come all the way from Basseterre…to be served here, so thank you and thanks to all of your staff who did an incredible job.”
Nurse Boddie-Dia, for her part, expressed her appreciation to Prime Minister Harris for his own tireless work in ensuring as many persons as possible received factual information about the COVID-19 vaccine, and hence stepped forward to become vaccinated.
“I really appreciate your unwavering support during the time of the COVID as well to coming here and taking out your time on Saturdays as well, and on behalf of my staff and myself I say a huge, huge thank you,” Nurse Boddie-Dia said, while also congratulating Prime Minister Harris on his 28th anniversary.
Thursday’s activity ended with a stop at the Estridge Housing Project where the first 15 of 50 “petrocasas” houses, being donated to the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under the Petrocaribe arrangement, have been completed and are expected to be handed over later this year.
The honourable prime minister is expected to resume his outreach in his constituency tomorrow, Friday, November 26 with a walkthrough in the Phillip’s and Molineux communities.
