Earlier this year, expressions of interest were invited to assess willingness to put in place alternative arrangements for the St Helena Government Printing Office.

After doing so, SHG received interest from three parties and, out of these three, one decided to submit a detailed proposal. The proposal came from Mr and Mrs Wolf in Namibia, South Africa and after an initial exchange of correspondence, the couple will be visiting St Helena from 15 to 22 September to discuss their proposal in detail with SHG and the St Helena Development Agency.

During their visit, Mr and Mrs Wolf will be given the opportunity to present their proposal to various stakeholders and potential market groups.

Acting Deputy Secretary, Gillian Francis said that the St Helena Government wants to withdraw from providing services that can be provided by the private sector, and the Printing Office is one of them. SHG wants the private sector to operate the Printing Office, even it this is done jointly with SHG in the first instance.

For the Printing Office, SHG is looking for someone to develop the current service and to bring the operation on par with international standards. The demand for printing on St Helena is quite great, particularly within the St Helena Government, and whilst this demand is met mainly by the Printing Office with small amounts of printing being done in departments some printing jobs, for example, brochures and posters, are undertaken overseas. Colour printing is also in great demand particularly from members of the public and the private sector.

Gillian said that: "subject to satisfactory negotiations with Mr and Mrs Wolf it is hoped that there will be an agreed plan of action for alternative operational arrangements for the Printing Officer prior to Mr and Mrs Wolf’s departure on 22 September."

Shara Robinson has made record by being the first ever student to achieve 100% for her clinical practice portfolio at Queens’ University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Chief Administrative Health and Social Services Officer said: "The Department and St Helena are very proud of Shara. This has demonstrated that St Helenians can achieve if given the opportunity."

Maureen Coutts, Senior Nursing Officer said: "This is a wonderful achievement and is indeed a boost to the St. Helena Nursing profession. We congratulate Shara on her success and wish her well with her studies." Maureen recalls that when Shara was studying at the General Hospital to become a nurse she was a very bright and outstanding student with a lot of potential. "She worked hard to achieve her objectives," said Maureen.

In 2001 Shara was awarded the Jean Beadon Student Nurse of the Year Award, and it was in this year that she qualified as a local nurse.

After completing her two year St. Helena Nurse Training, Shara embarked on a three year nursing diploma course at Queens University in September 2001. She did exceptionally well throughout the first two years and is now spending her final year studying for a degree in nursing.

Commenting on how the course is going so far Shara said: "These past 2 years have been non-stop studying, it has been a struggle, however, very rewarding. I thank God for successfully getting me through the assessments so far, and also Andrew, for being such a great support, and who constantly reminds me that watching 'TV' programmes such as ER is not good revision for passing exams (hehe). I am enjoying every minute of the learning experience here in Belfast, however, am looking forward to returning to the warmth of St. Helena."

This week, we publish the purpose of Dr Michael Owens visit to St Helena.

The purpose of the visit is for Dr Owen, Public Health Specialist, to provide advice and support to the Public Health and Social Services department in progressing the Health Link 2 Programme. Dr Owen will have lead responsibility for the development and co-ordination of the public health inputs of the Nicare consultants, in conjunction with the Chief Administrative Health and Social Services Officer (CAHSSO).

Management Support

This will involve training and monitoring the contribution of UK management through the services provided by the Northern Ireland Health Care Services (NICARE) to on-island colleagues in pursuit of Health link2 goals, as well as supporting the work of the CAHSSO and UK Management Unit, as required.

Dr Owen will also be providing technical support by acting as adviser to the department on strategic matters of public health management, health information management, use of epidemiological and other information for important decision making.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Dr Owen will be taking lead responsibility for research, field study and actioning of a baseline and subsequent epidemiological survey; together with the CAHSSO and Nicare Director will be monitoring the progress of the healthlink programme.

Office of the Chief Secretary

Having successfully completed a three-year overseas training course at Queens’ University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a St Helenian Nurse will be returning on the next calling of the RMS St Helena.

Wendy Herne a St. Helena Qualified Nurse, Midwife and Physiotherapist commenced her Nurse Diploma studies at Queens University in September 2000.

Chief Administrative Health and Social Services Officer Ivy Ellick said: "I was always confident that Wendy would do well. She has demonstrated that despite being out of the classroom so long and entering college as a mature student, anything is possible."

"We congratulate Wendy on her achievement and look forward to having her back with us again" said Maureen Coutts, Senior Nursing Officer from the Public Health and Social Services Department. Maureen added that Wendy is a "very dedicated and committed nurse who sets high standards for herself. She has worked extremely hard in order to achieve her success."

Wendy started her nursing career as a cadet nurse and before leaving for overseas training in 2001, she was working within the General Hospital as a Senior Staff Nurse. She will return to the department later this month as a Nursing Sister.

Remembrance Day is drawing near and the Office of the Chief Secretary has been organising the sale of poppies and coordinating the Remembrance Service together with the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop.

Schools have ordered almost 800 poppies and shops and other organisations have ordered over 1800 for sale to members of the public. This year poppies are being sold for 10p, as they will come with the leaves attached.

The Office of the Chief Secretary is hoping that all will be sold this year, as this would bring a total of £260 from the sale of poppies. It has been noticed that in the past there have been a number of people who donate more than the cost of the poppy and because of this generosity, St Helena contributed the sum of £328.42 last year. Commenting on this, Deputy Secretary Ethel Yon MBE said: "Let’s see if we can beat this figure this year."

Royal Mail in the United Kingdom has informed Postmistress, Beverley Francis that there might be some delays in delivering mail to certain areas in Britain. This is because some of Royal Mail’s employees, predominantly in the London Region went on strike, which has affected the processing of letter mail.

The strike is now over but the Postmistress said that some mail might still be late arriving on the Island. Several bags of mail are already on Ascension and this will arrive in time but if people in the UK were posting mail to St Helena while the strike was on, there could be some delay in it getting here. Beverley went on to say that mail which has already been posted from St Helena could also be late arriving to recipients in the UK.

The strike only affected Royal Mail letters and there was no problem with parcels or packages. These continued to be received and delivered as normal.

Despite the strike mail will be sent from St Helena to the UK via Ascension when the RMS St Helena departs on 17 November.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has once again invited His Excellency the Governor to submit recommendations for Birthday Honours 2004. Persons wishing to submit nominations are reminded that honours are awarded on merit for exceptional achievement or service over and above what normally might be expected. Where possible, nominations should place emphasis on voluntary services. Any recommendations from people on St Helena are required at the Castle by Friday 28 November 2003. Copies of the FCO’s public nomination form may be obtained from Mrs Gillian Francis, Assistant Secretary, Office of the Chief Secretary. Completed nomination forms should be returned in a sealed envelope, addressed to Mrs Francis and marked confidential.