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Giving
Back For Christmas
On
December 22, 2003, against the backdrop of frenzied last-minute
Christmas shopping and anxiety over 'getting', students and teachers
of the Bequia Community High School and the Bequia Seventh Day
Adventist Secondary journeyed to the Southern Grenadines, 'giving'
hope to the environment.
We
believe the world's environment is under serious degrading pressures
and without the knowledge necessary for the protection and preservation
of what God has given us, the mandate to 'dress and keep' (Genesis.2:
15) small sandy atolls like Petit Tobac in the Tobago Cays will
disappear, and all the talk and protocol of the 'Barbados Programme
of Action for Small Island Developing States' will vanish with
them.
Our
students have stubbornly refused to be sucked into all the controversy
of the do's and don'ts surrounding the Tobago Cays, and immersed
themselves into collecting data about beach stability, rising
sea levels, debris, and long shore currents, which are negatively
impacting our National Park, and our country.
As
part of the UNESCO Sandwatch Educational Expansion programme,
they incorporated the Myreau Environmental Development Organization
(MEDO) into the programme and have presented to them a full set
of equipment, which will be used to monitor beach stability on
Myreau and the Southern Grenadines.
Hands-on
experience on the beaches, and a mini training session were held
at the MEDO Research Center on Myreau. This center is fast becoming
a classic learning institution, and a place where students of
this country can find valuable material for research and interest.
President of MEDO, Mrs. Annie Adams was very excited to get her
group involved in this project, and looks forward to her group's
adventure with the new equipment and follow-up activities with
our students.
H.
L. Belmar
UNESCO
National Sandwatch Coordinator
Vincentian
31.12.03
Young
people on board the traditional wooden schooner Friendship Rose,
arriving in the Tobago Cays for a Sandwatch activity, December
22, 2003
Training
session on Sandwatch techniques with the Myreau Environmental
Development Organisation.
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