Basseterre, St. Kitts (SKNIS): The importance of establishing and maintaining goodwill between the security forces and the community were highlighted on April 11, 2024, to the recruits attending the Sea Cadet Training Camp.

The teens and members of the camp training staff from the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force (SKNDF) Coast Guard Unit travelled to Major’s Bay on Thursday (April 11) to clean up the beach as part of their community relations project, commonly referred to as COMREL.

SKNDF Commander, Lieutenant Colonel J. Anthony Comrie, noted that it was important to expose the young people to COMREL, as it is a regular component of military service.

“Being public servants, we have to give back to the community, and we believe in the old African adage ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We are a part of the village, and we have to contribute,” Lt. Col. Comrie expressed.

He added that camp organisers strategically chose beach clean-ups, one at Major’s Bay in St. Kitts and the other at Gallow’s Bay, Nevis, on Wednesday, April 17, as the COMREL exercise.

“The environment is important to us … as seafarers. We realise that we have climate change, global warming and all this, due to people ignoring the importance of the environment, so we feel that if we educate the youth [about] that at an early age then it will bear fruits in the future,” the SKNDF Commander expressed.

The Sea Cadet Training Camp runs from April 08 to 19, 2024.