Dear Editor,

I write in response to a letter to the editor by Mark Christie, stating ‘Hanna’s failure is Ja’s death knell’. Now, I would like to know on what basis he is giving the minister a failing grade. The minister is indeed quite eloquent and is translating that eloquence into success at the Ministry of Youth and Culture.

Everyone seems to be in a frenzy about what the minister is doing outside of office, but no one seems to be looking at the facts and the accomplishments. Look closely at the facts, Christie.

Since Minister Hanna took over office a lot has been achieved: There have been improved efforts to locate missing children; they were able to locate and return nine out of 10 children who were reported missing. They were able to remove all the children from the adult correctional facilities, because a child and an adult should not be sharing the same space, let alone in a correctional facility. They have implemented a smile mobile mental health service which provides accessible and consistent mental health services to wards of the state in critical need of assessment and/or therapeutic care. They have also initiated ‘Art for Life’, a programme featuring the use of the performing arts as therapy and recreation at the South Camp Correctional Centre. All of this was done by the Ministry of Youth and Culture in tandem with the Child Development Agency.

Since Minister Hanna took over office a lot has been achieved: There have been improved efforts to locate missing children; they were able to locate and return nine out of 10 children who were reported missing. They were able to remove all the children from the adult correctional facilities, because a child and an adult should not be sharing the same space, let alone in a correctional facility. They have implemented a smile mobile mental health service which provides accessible and consistent mental health services to wards of the state in critical need of assessment and/or therapeutic care. They have also initiated ‘Art for Life’, a programme featuring the use of the performing arts as therapy and recreation at the South Camp Correctional Centre. All of this was done by the Ministry of Youth and Culture in tandem with the Child Development Agency.

As it relates to culture, they have completed the dossier for the nomination of the Blue and John Crow Mountains to the world heritage list and they have also started a culture card programme in some of the high schools giving young people free access to a variety of cultural and creative programmes offered by museums, heritage sites and cultural events. These are only a few accomplishments of the minister of youth and culture since she has been in office

Let’s get the facts straight.

Peru Ellis

peru_ellis@yahoo.com