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CDB’s Youth Fire Forum talks Climate Change & Mental Health

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By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

 

#TurksandCaicos, June 15, 2022 – Young people across the Caribbean had the chance to make their voices heard in the Caribbean Development Banks Youth for Innovation and Resilience or Youth FIRE Forum on Tuesday, June 7th, on Facebook as part of the annual general meeting proceedings.

The forum was split into two sessions, session one ‘Climate Change and Health’ was moderated by Dr. Keron Niles and focused on how the reality of climate change affects health in youth, specifically mental health. It is not often that mental health is associated with climate change but Niles put it succinctly by saying,

“Can you imagine being afraid of the rain? Because you’re afraid it’s going to be another hurricane that could ruin your life?”

Dr. Anya Malcolm-Gibbs, a licensed clinical psychologist in the Turks and Caicos, agreed, referencing the severe effects of hurricane Irma in the Turks and Caicos, she explained that extreme weather can negatively affect youth mentally. Malcolm-Gibbs called on regional governments to be proactive in their efforts.

“There must be stronger efforts for integrated support with various stakeholders, psychological first aid training and resiliency planning need to be at the forefront of intervention.” she maintained.

Onika Stellingburg-Benn Regional Coordinator of the Caribbean of the Royal Commonwealth Society, concurred with Malcolm-Gibbs noting that:

“Our health ministries should collaborate with other ministries to ensure that health implications are included in the design of any climate change intervention.”

Quacy Grant of the Guyana Youth Council stressed that the link between environment and man was impossible to untangle and the health of one affected the other.

“Usually when we think about health and healthcare and when we think about the person that is ill, we limit that person to a disease… we forget that that person has a bio, socio, psycho component. We cannot take a person out of the environmental context in which they live, and we can’t take from the environment those organisms that live in it…the health of the environment will affect organisms…we have to remember that climate change has an effect on our health”

He explained that during interventions, for example, moving people to shelters the mental toll must be considered as well.

Panelist Jamilia Sealy who is a part of the Caribbean Youth Entrepreneurship Network quoted a recent survey that proved that the knowledge surrounding climate change and its effect on health was limited and its effects were often mistakenly ignored.

“In the last weekend, the CYN in Barbados did a survey on climate justice…and from what I’ve seen only 21.5 percent of the 300 respondents noted that they thought health was an impact of climate change…I believe that maybe they’re not as aware of the impacts and might not include mental health as an issue.”

Sealy stressed that it was something we all had to work on. Colin Young, Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, or 5Cs, explained that climate change was ‘cross cutting’ the Caribbean, affecting every single area of our lives in ways we might never have thought about. He explained the Caribbean is dealing with multiple blows like pandemics and the worsening climate situation all at once and we need to be prepared.

“It’s stressing our health systems and our ability to cope, on [both] the mental health side and the physical side. So, this conversation is absolutely vital,” he said.

Young expressed that while some steps were being taken it was not yet enough.

“Unfortunately, as a region we do not undertake the type of research that will allow us to understand the effects of climate change on our youth’s mental health”

Young said a study was done on climate change and mental wellbeing on 10 000 young people in over 10 countries and found that:

“Across the countries, 59 percent of those interviewed were extremely worried about climate change, 84% of those were moderately worried and more than 50% reported emotions of sadness, anxiety, powerlessness, helplessness, and guilt.”

So how do we combat all of this?

Referencing the emerging issues Young said understanding them was key to creating programs within our health system that could combat them more efficiently.

Grant added that one way to get ahead of the issue was to carry out more operational research rather than academic research to find out what interventions will work best to ensure we have evidence-based tools to combat the effect of climate change on health.

For the everyday tools that youth can put into practice Sealy said, being aware of how climate change affects us and taking care of ourselves mentally and physically to reduce those impacts was important. Things as small as: cooling down on a hot day and wearing lighter clothes to make ourselves more comfortable were important.

Additionally, Sealy said educating ourselves about climate change from reputable sources and understanding the global reality was paramount. Grant insisted that this climate change education must include active change.

“We should not educate the populace on climate change and health just for them to be aware, but we want some behaviour change. I think it starts in the home,” he said.

Stronger government response to disasters equals quicker recovery, getting back to normalcy quicker and thus possibly reduced trauma on youth, Young had several suggestions on how regional governments could make this happen, they included:

  • Having access to real-time data integrated across all disaster response services
  • Ensuring that disaster response is prepared for new climate emergencies
  • Upgrading the quality of hurricane shelters.
  • Upgrading critical infrastructure needed for post-hurricane recovery including health and water.

All the panellists encouraged more comprehensive efforts to bolster hurricane and climate change readiness which they say is to the benefit of youth.

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Caribbean News

CARPHA Progresses to Eligibility for the First Disbursement of Pandemic Funding

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Following a landmark Public Signing Ceremony for the Pandemic Fund (PF) Technical Cooperation Agreement (“Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response” [RG-T4387] Project) on December 14, 2023, in Trinidad, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) continues to progress towards the start of implementation.

 CARPHA fulfilled the IDB’s nine conditions prior to first disbursement, achieving full eligibility on March 15, 2024, and is now eligible for the first disbursement. This milestone achievement in just 3 months after the signing speaks to the commitment of both CARPHA, the Executing Agency, and IDB, the Implementing Entity, toward the regional PF project with the objective of supporting the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) surveillance & early-warning systems (EWS), laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and in countries.

Since the signing of the Technical Cooperation Agreement and as part of the conditions prior to first disbursement, CARPHA has achieved the following key outputs (i) the development of the PF Project Operations Manual, Multi-annual Execution Plan, Procurement Plan, Financial Plan, Procedure for CARPHA’s Financial Reporting System; (ii) vacancy announcements for two tranches of consultants with the subsequent hiring of five (Technical Coordinator, Financial Specialist, Procurement Specialist, Operations Officer and Project Operations Coordinator) and (iii) the establishment of the Project Execution Unit (PEU) and Project Execution Steering Committee (PESC). The dedicated PEU will be responsible for execution according to its planned timelines, which will be led by the Dr. Lisa Indar, the Project Director (CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Division).

 CARPHA, as the lead regional public health agency and an expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health is mandated by its Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to support its 26 CARPHA Member States (CMS) in bolstering national systems and coordinating regional response to public health threats. The Agency works closely with regional and international agencies and uses regional mechanisms, surveillance systems, and networks for coordinating its public health response work.

In July 2023, the PF Governing Board announced that CARPHA’s regional entity proposal, entitled ‘Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems and Workforce Development’ was successfully selected for the first round of financing. It was one of only 19 proposals selected from over 300 submissions and the only regional project. The three priority areas in the proposal are: (i) Comprehensive disease surveillance and EWS, (ii) Laboratory systems and (iii) Human resources and public health and community workforce capacity.

This project is expected to begin implementation in March 2024, starting off with a blended onboarding session. A Stakeholder Meeting with countries is tentatively planned for July 2024.

CARPHA remains dedicated to working together with the IDB, CARPHA Member States and the Pandemic Fund to successfully implement the regional proposal geared toward reducing the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean.

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Men who had Murdered Man, Marley Higgs’ cell phone face Court

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Wilkie Arthur

Freelance Court Correspondent

The prosecution intends to try two young North Caicos men, both age 21 for the offense of possession of property of a murdered man, property that was stolen and landed in their possession.

The phone belonged to Peureton ‘Marley’ Higgs, who is believed to have been an innocent gunned down at his apartment complex in the Glass Shack area in a spray of bullets on February 2 that killed another man and wounded two others, including a ten-year-old little girl.

The cell phone was described as white in colour, an iPhone, in a hard black case. 

On Monday, March 18th, JEFFVANO HANDFIELD of North Caicos pleaded not guilty to the offense, and the matter was adjourned to April 2024. He was granted bail in the matter.

A second North Caicos man was charged similarly.  

SARENO CAPELLAN aka, Kino Williams is the second individual brought before the court pertaining to the said cellphone. He appeared in court a week after JEFFVANO HANDFIELD, the date being Monday March 25th 2024.

The case for the Crown is that both men sometime in February of this year possessed the cellphone knowing or suspecting it to be stolen property.

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Caribbean News

Supreme Court Closed for Easter

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NOTICE is hereby given that the Easter Recess shall commence on Friday 29th April, 2024 and end on Friday 5th April, 2024. During the Easter Recess Judge Selochan will be available to deal only with matters that are urgent or require prompt attention.

Court Business During the Easter Recess

A person who wishes to have a matter heard during the recess must file a certificate of urgency along with an affidavit, which must set out the reasons why the matter is urgent or requires prompt attention. The matter will not be listed during the recess unless the Judge deems it fit for urgent hearing.

Opening Hours During the Easter Holiday

The Supreme Court’s last sitting day for the first term is Thursday 28th March, 2024. The Court will officially resume sittings on Monday 8th April, 2024. The Supreme Court Offices in both Grand Turk and Providenciales will continue to operate while the Court is not sitting during the recess.

The Court Office will be closed on the following public holidays:

  • Friday 29th March, 2024 (Good Friday) CLOSED
  • Monday 1st April, 2024 (Easter Monday) CLOSED

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