Black Immigrant Daily News

For generations of American kids, summer camp has been a familiar rite of passage.

They’d get some exercise, maybe learn a new skill, and hopefully build a few new friendships before the lazy days of summer ended.

Locally, Funland Jamaica has already started enrollment for their summer ’22 season, adding more than just fun and games to the new experiences offered.

But, whatever the camp’s focus might be, kids could mostly count on a predictable ritual of sunny days and nights around the campfire.

But the pandemic-disrupted summers of 2020 and 2021 turned the camping experience, like almost every other part of American life, upside down.

Some camps closed, while others attempted to host kids and adopted safety precautions. For many parents of kids too young to get vaccinated, camp just wasn’t an option.

So this year, many families may be attempting a “normal” they haven’t tried since 2019 – or haven’t tried at all.

And after two years of hybrid school schedules and learning online, kids may feel trepidation at an in-person camp.

Fortunately, camping experts say, there are plenty of ways parents at home can help support their summer campers.

Share Info About Your Camper

This year, “kids need more,” says Tom Rosenberg, president and CEO of the American Camp Association. “They need more supervision, they need more coaching.”

Camp directors and counsellors might be especially grateful for the insight into the children they’re hosting.

Communicate with the folks in charge: Knowing how a child responds to conflict “helps us provide a better experience for the camper,” agrees Julie Bowman, manager of camps and public experiences at the Carnegie Science Centre in Pittsburgh.

Think about dropping a note to camp directors sharing strategies that work for you with your child.

Communicate With Care

Parents often write letters to sleepaway campers explaining how terribly the kids are missed at home.

These parents mean well, “but that 9-year-old kid really believes that their parent needs them. They’re worried about their parents,” says Bob Bechtold, director of programs at Pittsburgh’s Sarah Heinz House, which operates a day camp and overnight camp. And they might feel more homesick.

Rather than focusing your letter on how much you miss the child, Bechtold says, “it should be more prompts to get the kids to talk about their experiences and telling them how proud you are.”

Mention that you’re looking forward to hearing their stories about camp and you’re so glad they’re having new experiences.

“That puts them in a good place where they can be successful – where they’re not worried about home, where they’re not thinking about what’s going on there,” Bechtold says.

“That’s what camp’s about – making those memories, living in the moment.”

Also, let your child know in your letters that this can be a summer for trying new things and having fun rather than worrying about excelling, Rosenberg says.

“Making mistakes is an important part of learning, development and growth mindset,” he says, and “that’s what’s great about camp. It’s a place where kids can really learn to improve their disposition, to learn and become more curious, to be more discovery-oriented. And not be afraid to just go for it and try something new.”

Sending Supplies

Camps often have emergency items like towels that a camper can borrow. But kids can feel surprisingly uncomfortable telling a counsellor they’ve forgotten something, Bechtold says.

Some will do without key items rather than ask for help.

So if your child hasn’t left for camp yet, confirm what’s needed even if you believe you know, and use a written checklist when packing.

And if the camp has already begun, let your child know that if anything got left behind, they can tell their counsellors and ask for help remedying the situation.

Dealing with Devices

Help your child understand and follow the camp’s policy on phones and digital devices. Sometimes the rules can be jarring to kids who have spent lots of time on digital devices throughout the past couple of years.

At Bowman’s day camp, “we encourage them not to bring a cell phone,” she says. “And if they do bring a cell phone, we ask that they keep it tucked away.”

Rosenberg says this can be especially stressful for some boys who are more used to communicating via text or on gaming platforms where they’re not expected to show emotion or connect empathetically with others.

If your child hasn’t begun camp yet, confirm the policy on phones and other devices, and prepare your camper for it.

If camp is underway and your child is frustrated that device use is limited, try to encourage them to embrace a screen-free (or at least screen-minimal) summer.

The beauty of camp, Rosenberg says, is that kids develop their budding identities by forming face-to-face connections with others.

Ideally, he says, millions of kids will set digital screens aside this summer and “start building stronger social-emotional connections — the human connections we all need.”

By Melissa Rayworth

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Black Immigrant Daily News

International Game Technology (IGT) in collaboration with Mona Geoinformatics Institute (MGI) will be implementing a renewal of its coding and robotics summer programme, dubbed the “IGT Coding & Robotics Rock! Camp” across the Caribbean.

The first session of this camp is slated for July 20 – 29 and the second will be held August 15 – 26.

This year’s camp will be hosted under the theme, “Youth Coding for a Sustainable Caribbean” to focus on technological innovations that are capable of addressing social and environmental issues and fuelling sustainable growth within the region.

Similar to the 2021 staging, the camp will feature 36 participants from IGT After School Advantage (ASA) Centres in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Antigua and Nevis, as the two newest participating countries, will join the other participating islands of Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, and Trinidad & Tobago to increase the number of participating countries to seven.

Brendan Hames, Regional Director, IGT Caribbean, said the event, first staged last year, is geared toward introducing and equipping youth with marketable programming skills.

“There is a growing realization among educators that teaching coding and robotics to children and youth will give them valuable skills for life and expose them to innovative uses of technology,” said Hames.

He continued, “Through the IGT Coding & Robotics Rock! Camp, we hope to give our young participants these skills and to guide them in channelling the skillset and their innovativeness towards national development across the Caribbean.”

Hames further explained that given the success of the 2021 Camp, and to better achieve the objectives of this year’s programme, IGT and MGI have decided to deliver the training at two levels: The cohort from last year’s Camp along with newcomers who already have introductory knowledge in coding, will participate in a more advanced two-week camp (Level II) aiming to build upon the fundamentals learnt in 2021.

The new incoming cohort (Level I) will be introduced to the fundamentals of coding and robotics.

Dr. Ava Maxam, Acting Executive Director at MGI, said the Institute was positive that the training had helped to instil in the boys and girls participating, an appreciation of the potential that existed in that particular field of technology.

“Whether as entrepreneurs or on the corporate level, there is tremendous interest in coding and robotics as career options, and the camp has successfully tapped into and stimulated this even further,” Maxam noted. “We have great expectations for a successful renewal.”

IGT has consistently played a leading role in increasing access to technology and internet connectivity for youth in underserved communities through its After School Advantage (ASA) programme. Since 2011, IGT and its subsidiaries have opened some 39 ASA computer labs across the English-speaking Caribbean.

Through this and other initiatives, IGT aims to continually enhance the technological awareness of students and prepare them to contribute to the social and infrastructural development of the Caribbean.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/igt/

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While Caribbean Community leaders met this week in Suriname to discuss, among other issues, climate change, agriculture and food security, regional transport and travel, and the impact of global shocks on the region, there remains a concern that the move to regional integration has stalled, if not progressing as steadily as expected. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.

Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell, the newest elected head of Government in the region, was strident in his address at the 43rd Regular Meeting of the Conference of Caricom Heads of Government, during which he called on the regional intergovernmental organisation to be more than a talk shop.

“For too long this Caribbean Community that we all love has been seen and viewed as a place where we talk, and talk, and talk and then we talk some more, and to what end, Mr Chairman,” he asked.

“No, sir. This is a time colleagues, my friends and to all the young people across the Caribbean Community (Caricom) — this is indeed our moment, this is your moment, where it is a time for action and a time of choosing,” Mitchell continued

The Grenada prime minister called on leaders to “pause and reflect on the many experiences we have had while in pursuit of regional integration” but also urged his colleagues “to redouble our efforts to finding solutions to our challenges”.

Mitchell’s address begs the question, has Caricom’s efforts gone far enough to ensure regional integration?

Since its inception in 1973 under the Treaty of Chaguaramas, Caricom has had four pillars of regional integration: economic integration, foreign policy coordination, human and social development, and security. Under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, 2001, the organisation took a step further to deepen integration with the introduction of the Caricom Single Market & Economy (CSME).

“The CSME is undoubtedly the most ambitious project of Caricom since its founding in 1973. Almost 20 years after the Grand Anse Declaration the Caricom Heads of Government signed on to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) in 2001. The ultimate goal of the RTC is to create a single economic space and ultimately economic union, complete policy coordination, harmonisation of functional areas and a common currency,” Samuel Braithwaite wrote in ‘Caricom Report: Progress and challenges of the integration agenda’.

“The common currency has since been removed from consideration as its implementation was seen as not realistic in the current dispensation,” he added in the Inter-American Development Bank-commissioned study published in 2021.

There are five main thrusts of the CSME: free movement of skills/labour, free movement of goods, free movement of services, free movement of capital, and the right of establishment.

Committed to implement

In 2006, Caribbean heads of government committed to full implementation of the CSME by 2008. But they would fall short of this goal on account of the 2007-2011 Great Recession.

Again in 2007, during a Heads of Government Meeting in St Lucia, another deadline was set for 2015.

Still, a progress report on the implementation of the CSME by Hassan et al has found that, up to 2016, only 56.5 per cent of measures to realise a single market has been actioned. Of the 619 actions required, only 315 have been completed.

Brathwaite concludes that, “While progress has been made towards achieving the goals of the CSME, Caricom governments have used the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to secure the welfare of the citizens of their respective countries.”

Coincidentally, in 2016 Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness announced the appointment of a Caricom Review Commission to assess Jamaica’s participation in the regional bloc.

Led by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the commission focused on four key areas: the economic impact of Caricom, especially on the Jamaican economy; the mechanisms geared towards decision-making, implementation, enforcement and dispute settlement; the effectiveness of functional cooperation; and the possibilities and implications of Jamaica’s economic relationships outside of Caricom.

However, one of the main findings of the commission was that “while [the Caricom Secretariat] is often and unfairly blamed for Caricom’s slow pace of development, its powers are very limited. Much of the implementation deficit lies with national governments over which the secretariat has no authority.”

Moreover, the report proposed the formation of an oversight committee that has the primary responsibility of reviewing Caricom’s performance and the compliance of member states.

In addition, it recommended Jamaica’s withdrawal from the single market should there be no “clear, definitive commitment by all member states to a specific, time-bound, measurable and verifiable programme of action to fulfil all their obligations and complete all requirements for the CSME to be fully established and operational within the next five years”.

In his response to the ‘Golding Report’, Collin Constantine criticised the commission for not acknowledging that inadequate funding and untimely payment of member states’ contributions also factored into the implementation deficit of the Caricom Secretariat to achieve integration.

While Constantine highlighted deficiencies in the Caricom Review Commission’s methodology, he also found that Caribbean integration would also require addressing dissimilar socio-economic structures between member states, the failure to implement at the domestic political level, unequal distribution of gains that would result from integration.

On another note, he said that even though regional integration has been a priority of Caribbean Heads of Government, there is not much information on the buy-in of the citizenry.

Following the Golding Report, Caricom leaders held a special meeting in Trinidad on December 3-4, 2018, with the purpose of fast tracking the implementation of the CSME.

Although Brathwaite points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the free movement of people, goods and services, he highlights that there has been increased collaboration between member states on a number of issues including food security.

Following the closing of the Caribbean Heads of Government Meeting on Tuesday, July 5, a communiqué from Caricom noted: “Heads of Government expressed disappointment at the slow pace of implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy and took immediate steps to move the process forward.”

Still, a progress report on the implementation of the CSME by Hassan et al has found that, up to 2016, only 56.5 per cent of measures to realise a single market has been actioned. Of the 619 actions required, only 315 have been completed.

Brathwaite concludes that, “While progress has been made towards achieving the goals of the CSME, Caricom governments have used the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to secure the welfare of the citizens of their respective countries.”

Coincidentally, in 2016 Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness announced the appointment of a Caricom Review Commission to assess Jamaica’s participation in the regional bloc.

Led by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the commission focused on four key areas: the economic impact of Caricom, especially on the Jamaican economy; the mechanisms geared towards decision-making, implementation, enforcement and dispute settlement; the effectiveness of functional cooperation; and the possibilities and implications of Jamaica’s economic relationships outside of Caricom.

However, one of the main findings of the commission was that “while [the Caricom Secretariat] is often and unfairly blamed for Caricom’s slow pace of development, its powers are very limited. Much of the implementation deficit lies with national governments over which the secretariat has no authority.”

Moreover, the report proposed the formation of an oversight committee that has the primary responsibility of reviewing Caricom’s performance and the compliance of member states.

In addition, it recommended Jamaica’s withdrawal from the single market should there be no “clear, definitive commitment by all member states to a specific, time-bound, measurable and verifiable programme of action to fulfil all their obligations and complete all requirements for the CSME to be fully established and operational within the next five years”.

In his response to the ‘Golding Report’, Collin Constantine criticised the commission for not acknowledging that inadequate funding and untimely payment of member states’ contributions also factored into the implementation deficit of the Caricom Secretariat to achieve integration.

While Constantine highlighted deficiencies in the Caricom Review Commission’s methodology, he also found that Caribbean integration would also require addressing dissimilar socio-economic structures between member states, the failure to implement at the domestic political level, unequal distribution of gains that would result from integration.

On another note, he said that even though regional integration has been a priority of Caribbean Heads of Government, there is not much information on the buy-in of the citizenry.

Following the Golding Report, Caricom leaders held a special meeting in Trinidad on December 3-4, 2018, with the purpose of fast tracking the implementation of the CSME.

Although Brathwaite points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the free movement of people, goods and services, he highlights that there has been increased collaboration between member states on a number of issues including food security.

Following the closing of the Caribbean Heads of Government Meeting on Tuesday, July 5, a communiqué from Caricom noted: “Heads of Government expressed disappointment at the slow pace of implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy and took immediate steps to move the process forward.” — Jamaica Observer

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Some of the police officers who responded to search for suspects in Rich Plain Road, Diego Martin on April 22, after PC Clarence Gilkes was shot and killed. File photo/Angelo Marcelle

THE Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has forwarded a file to both the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Office of the Attorney General, after an investigation found that officers who raided a mosque in Rich Plain, Diego Martin in April, may have committed not only criminal offences but also breaches to the Constitution.

This was confirmed in a press release issued by the PCA on Monday.

The release said that the PCA began investigations into the conduct of officers from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Western Division Task Force who participated in exercises in Rich Plain between April 22-23.

During those exercises, one of the officers – PC Clarence Gilkes – was shot dead.

The PCA said that it investigated the officers’ conduct during a raid on the Masjid al Hudaa and during the course of the investigation, the PCA received information and other evidence pointing to police officers assaulting members of the Islamic community who were present at the mosque and also desecrating that place of worship.

The PCA also learnt that the party of officers involved in the raid on the mosque, was involved in exercise hours earlier, in which PC Gilkes was killed.

The PCA said it was of the view that several criminal offences may have been committed and as such, it referred the matter to the DPP as well as the Acting Police Commissioner for action for the related disciplinary offences, on June 27.

The release added that the PCA’s dossier on its investigations into the police officers in question was also forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General as there may have been breaches to the Constitution.

Gilkes, 44, was shot and killed after officers received a report of men with assault rifles in the Rich Plain area.

According to the official police account, Gilkes was killed when gunmen shot at him and other officers. However, an autopsy later revealed he was shot in the neck from and that the bullet which ended his life, was issued by the TTPS.

An earlier PCA release, issued a week ago, said it found that officers involved in the Rich Plain raid, had misled acting CoP McDonald Jacob in terms of what really went on which led to PC Gilkes’ death.

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The National Council on Public Transportation(NCOPT) is seeking the Saint Lucia government’s assistance in addressing discrepancies in the new bus fares that went into effect recently.

NCOPT President Godfrey Ferdinand explained that in some instances where the fare should be $1.50, the figure on the official rate sheet is $1.75.

He said in other instances, instead of $1.75, the fare on the sheet is $2.00.

“Some of it is due to typo errors,” Ferdinand told St Lucia Times, adding that there was also a need to address some boundary issues.

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And he disclosed that the NCOPT was in the process of highlighting the errors to the Ministry of Transport to get the matter rectified.

Ferdinand explained that for some fare discrepancies, some operators would adhere to the fee before the government granted the increase.

But he said most bus operators stick to what they know is the correct fare.

“Obviously you would get some troublesome passengers that would create issues for everything and that’s why we want the government to correct it,” the NCOPT President stated.

“In some areas, very few, maybe about three to four areas we have received serious complaints. However generally the commuters and the operators are working together because some of these areas are community routes so they would know whether the fare was to go up by 25 cents or 50 cents or a dollar,” Ferdinand noted.

“On the long routes persons would be maybe a bit confused as to whether they should be paying the dollar or the 50 cents between, let’s say Castries to Vieux Fort or Castries To Soufriere. So what’s the fare for Canaries? What’s the fare for the Desruisseaux Gap coming from Castries?”

“Some of these things are what we are trying to change,” he observed.

Ferdinand revealed that the new fare structure went through the bus associations, the NCOPT, the Ministry of Transport, the Attorney General’s Office, and then to the printery.

“Somewhere along the line you could have some errors especially if one does not understand the concept of how this thing is done. We tried to reduce some of the errors, but obviously it didn’t work out,” the NCOPT President told St Lucia Times.

In addition, Ferdinand asserted that all fare adjustments have contained errors.

“It’s just that this time around there are a bit too many,” he declared.

In this regard, he appealed to the public and bus operators to work with the NCOPT while corrections were made.

“Ninety-five percent of the operators would work with the public,” he told St Lucia Times.

On the other hand, Ferdinand acknowledged that some bus operators would see the situation as an opportunity to engage in price-gouging, which would negatively impact the public transport sector.

Headline photo: Stock image

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