Hensley Daniel of The Daniel Family Foundation
Charlestown, Nevis
August 25, 2008
In keeping with its pledge to contribute to the development of Nevis, in particular the field of education, the Daniel Family Foundation of Cox Village presented a second group of nine students with financial assistance for their five year tenure in secondary school. The presentation took place at the SJCIC building at Cole Hill on August 23, 2008.
Deputy Premier of Nevis Hon. Hensley Daniel, who is also a member of the Foundation, told the students it was important for them to maxamise the benefits derived from the assistance.
“The provision of the assistance for you to go to high school is important for you to take it and make as much use as possible and I am doing so because in our time in high school, these things were very, very scarce and having taught for many, many years, I recognise that these scholarships and these forms of assistance were absolutely necessary and they could have made a difference in the lives of so many other children had we had enough of these being available.
“Having been a teacher and having seen the need for these, it was not difficult for me to agree with my other brothers and sisters, that we should make a contribution to the education of the children”¦the idea is that the assistance must be like pebbles in water, it must have ripples. So I want to urge the students to continue on the mode of excellence. We may give you these scholarships and by hard work you may be able to win bigger ones and that is what we are hoping, that by sowing this small seed in first form, we would be able to win some others,” he said.
Mr. Daniel noted that by the end of five years, the Foundation would have assisted a total of 45 students with their secondary education. He also urged the students to not take education for granted and it was important for them to understand that any job on Nevis required them to be highly educated. He said the Foundation was committed to assist the students to attain their certificates, along with the assistance given by the Nevis Island Administration (NIA).
“I am part of a government which is also interested and keenly working on that because if we put up all the nice hotels and streets in the country and our people don’t have manners, respect, discipline, and education we have a problem, we still will have a problem. So I want to urge you to be good examples to the other students at the school and we [Foundation] will find ways and means of ensuring that you can get this assistance.
“What we [Foundation] have done is to select the two most outstanding students from each of the schools in St. Johns, Ivor Walters Primary. Here at the St. Johns Primary we added one student too who is working well and with some assistsnce can do better and it is in that pool that most of us come over the years. Most of us were in the pool of working well, could do better with some assistance and so that’s why we have added that. The students from Charlestown Primary, those students from the Bath community who attend that school and doing well, we assist them as well,” Mr. Daniel explained.
He said though other members of the Foundation were making their contributions over seas, they decided to localise their contribution to give directly to others in Nevis. They shared the view, he noted, that it was education that had made the difference for them, so they were helping to make education the difference for the beneficiaries of the Foundation.
Other members of the Daniel Family Foundation are Dr. Gilbert Daniel, Mr. Felix Daniel, Mr. Hastings Daniel, Mr. Theodore Daniel, Mrs. Lynette Daniel Cummings and Mrs. Gwendolyn Daniel Challenger. They are all children of the late Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Daniel of Cox Village. The Foundation was founded in August 2007.
The ceremony was chaired by member of the Daniel Family on Nevis Mr. Ron Daniel.