Remarks by
Hon. Fred Mitchell MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs & The Public Service
Responding to Barclays PLC Gift to Fox Hill Clinic

I am pleased and honoured to be here. As the representative for the Fox Hill constituency, I wish to welcome you here to Fox Hill. This is one of the historic free African villages of New Providence. This gift is a great way to start the New Year.

As the Representative for this area, my first area of concentration has been the children of Fox Hill. Minister Nottage, if you travel around the village with me, and through the schoolyard, the children call me Fred Mitchell as if it is one word. Last Christmas as we were having our end of term treat for the children and teachers of the school, they called me "Daddy Mitchell". I am obviously thrilled at their approval but more importantly for me, I hope it is a signal to me that all 650 children in Sandilands Primary School know that in this representative they have someone who cares for their every need, and who believes with all his heart that the investment in them is an investment in the future of this country.

The second focus in the community is its economic and social well-being. Great care and attention have been paid to ensuring that all who cannot afford it will have something to eat, will have adequate shelter and that their social needs are met through the Urban Renewal programme. For example Minister, the Urban Renewal office has an interface with senior citizens as does this clinic and will soon form a formal organization for them. There is a programme of visitation and social activities to ensure that no senior feels isolated within the community.

This clinic is a part of that effort. I have a strong affection for this clinic and its staff. I am not a stranger to them and they are not to me. Before I got in this job in 2002, there were those who threatened to close this clinic. The people of Fox Hill were upset up at the suggestion. This clinic was one they had come to depend on in times of emergency and for routine medical care. I take great pride in putting a stop to that decision. And I am happy that in the present dispensation, the clinic is still here to provide the routine primary health care for the people of the Fox Hill village and that extra care and comfort for the community generally. I want to thank the staff of the clinic for their vocation, and their concern for the people of this community. I thank you Minister for the Government’s continued support.

In a well known passage in the book of Corinthians, there is the thought that charity is not puffed up, does not boast, and does not promote itself. That is what this service is all about: my service to this community and this quiet clinic in Fox Hill that does its job without fanfare. It does not boast. It simply does the job it is ordained to do. The community is grateful.

I am happy therefore on behalf of the Fox Hill village, and this entire community to thank the benefactors for this significant and important gift to our community. I thank the Minister of Health and his team for thinking of Fox Hill as the recipient of the gift. I know that it will serve the community well.

It is clear that primary health care is a wise investment given the obvious expense connected with tertiary level care. The saying is a gramme of prevention is worth a kilogramme of cure. This gift will no doubt help children to focus on how they can take care of their health so that they can be more productive citizens, making healthy choices for both their physical and mental health. These choices might well lead to this generation of children before us today going into adulthood without the spectre of breast cancer, prostate cancer, hypertension and diabetes looming over their heads and affecting the productivity of their community.

I thank you all again, and as this is the year when we celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the 173^rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery, and Fox Hill will very much be the centre of the historic remembrances, I would like to invite all of you to come back in March and again in August to mark the occasions with us.

Thank you all; and congratulations Minister.