THE South Atlantic Media Services, Ltd. www.sams.sh Vol. 4,SENTINEL Issue 5 - Price: £1 “serving St Helena and her community worldwide” Thursday 23 April 2015 “A Fantastic Opportunity” Celebrating Five Years page 9 of G-Unique Designs Liam Yon, SAMS good feeling about the business she, “never imagined it would be this successful.” Giselle started making jewellery, in particular ear- This month G-Unique Designs, which specialises rings, as a hobby. This eventually grew into a, “cottage in jewellery and accessories, is celebrating fi ve years industry,” where she would create jewellery products since its start in 2010. “It certainly feels very invigo- in her home and sell them via outlets around the island. rating,” said Giselle Richards, owner of G-Unique De- “Then I decided to develop it further,” said Giselle, signs, “we are very proud to reach this milestone.” “because my spare bedroom just wasn’t big enough.” Starting in 2010, Giselle envisioned G-Unique design- She rented a workshop where she would create her ing jewellery that St Helena could be proud of, “from jewellery. Giselle then decided that there needed to a professional standpoint.” Although she always had a be, “an actual G-Unique continued on page 3 Sparkle Jewellery Getting Down and Dirty - L&C page 18 Environmental Risk Senior Managers Manager, Mike Durnford Clean Toilets Richard Wallis, SAMS Two senior managers from within the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) rolled up their sleeves and scrubbed the islands public toilets in an effort to better understand the amount of work that goes into providing a better service. Head of the Environmental Management Division, Ben Sansom and Environmental Risk Manager, Mike Shipping News Durnford spent the whole day on Friday 17 April, pages 13 & 34 when the biggest cruise ship of the year arrived, vis- iting every public toilet with cleaning equipment and scrubbing brushes. continued on page 4 2 www.sams.sh Thursday 23 April 2015 | THE SENTINEL ST HELENA SNIPPETS Beautiful baby girl Kianna A Precious Joella Constantine was born to proud parents Leanne Thomas and Phillip Constan- Bundle of Joy tine and order brother Kallis on 3 February at 11.30am. Born in Vincent Pallotti Hos- Kianna Joella pital in Cape Town, baby Kianna is, "happy, contented Constantine and very quiet," said mum- my. Weighing a healthy 6lb Anne Clarke, SAMS 14oz and measuring 51.5cm, Kianna is a delight to her older brother Kallis, who is, "very protective," of his baby sister. Mummy has adjusted well to her new addition to the family, "the second time around is just like the fi rst," she said, "everything is good and I'm very happy to have Kianna with us." Daddy is also overjoyed with the ar- rival of Kianna and is, "very hands on" said mummy. Nurses Show Support for Burnt-Out Business Amphibian’s Ryan Backhouse receiving a donation from Senior Nursing Assistant, Cynthia Fowler Jane Durnford, SAMS Hospital over a short period of time, follow- drinks and food. Ryan and Jason were both ing the suspected arson attack that destroyed grateful for the generosity and support of the Last Friday afternoon, Senior Nursing As- their bar. nursing staff. sistant, Cynthia Fowler presented Ryan Back- On Friday the MV Costa Deliziosa was sitting A heartfelt card accompanied the donation that house and Jason George, owners of Amphibi- in the harbour and the bar and grill had been said they, “were all very saddened by the ar- ans mobile bar, with a donation of £200, which set up in the Grand Parade, the business was son attack and decided to do a whip-round to had been raised by the staff at the General busy with tourists and island residents buying help,” get them back on their feet. THE SENTINEL | Thursday 23 April 2015 www.sams.sh 3 ST HELENA SNIPPETS Celebrating 5 Years of G-Unique From a Spare Bedroom to Two Successful Outlets continued from front page G-Unique’s Kerisha, Giselle and Tysha Outlet.” This is where the G-Unique Boutique and Studio Branch was born. By this time Giselle had turned jewellery mak- ing from a hobby into an established business. In the latter part of 2014 Giselle decided to ex- pand her business by opening a second outlet in The Market, Jamestown. “Recently as you would’ve seen,” explained Giselle, “G-Unique has decided to go one step further and develop into a second branch which is there to cater for people in the Main Street area.” Giselle said that it was not smooth sailing go- ing from a hobby to two successful branches. “There were plenty of challenges,” she said, “particularly when you are doing a business in a creative fi eld, you have to get that balance right between creative designs and making a profi t.” She says when running a business you must always think ahead, “where do we go from here? And how does this fi t in with the G-Unique vision?” Giselle cannot run the business on her own and is very grateful for her team, saying they, has got to the point now where I just oversee.” “are what actually makes G-Unique such a G-Unique also has a guiding principle of up- success.” Keisha Peters and Tysha Anthony skilling young people and encourages partici- are both Jewellery Designers for G-Unique pation in educational programs. This month with Mandy and Lydia running the Mainstreet Keisha (18) will be enrolling on a Jewellery Branch in Jamestown. “The jewellery design- Diploma and Tysha (17) is still carrying out an ers are absolutely incredible,” said Giselle, apprenticeship at the lab in Jamestown whilst “they bring their own spin on the products. It still learning skills at G-Unique. Mandy Hathway. Photo Supplied G-Unique is not the only jewellery-designing business on island with other local designers also selling handmade jewellery. Although this is the case, Giselle, “welcomes the competi- tion,” saying that it helps to keep G-Unique, “on their toes.” To celebrate its 5th Anniversary, G-Unique has had many special offers during the month of April. These offers range from ‘buy one get one free’ to ‘double reward card stamps’ and ‘free cake Fridays.’ Although reaching fi ve years is a fantastic milestone for any local business, Giselle en- visions G-Unique going even further. “One of the things that has defi nitely taken off this year is our export market,” she said, “so we’re in the process of re-designing our website to ca- ter for this.” Giselle hopes G-Unique designs will continue to be successful for years to come and dreams Displays of G-Unique Jewellery of one day being able to visit the Philadelphia Bead Festival in the USA. 4 www.sams.sh Thursday 23 April 2015 | THE SENTINEL SENTINEL Getting Down and Dirty COMMENT Senior Managers Clean Toilets Julie Fowler, SAMS I have one community wish and that would be to have the General Hospital fully staffed. I have been admitted to hospital many times in the last few years here on St Helena, UK and in Chile and I must say that each and every time I was looked after 100%. I remember in the Hos- pital in Chile as we walked along the corridors there was a cleaner with a cloth mop and disin- fectant cleaning as we walked, everything was spotless and we had to wear special clothing as we entered different sections of the hospital, also masks on our faces, everything to protect germs from spreading. Doctors were dressed in white cloaks and special shoes; in every aisle was a hand sanitizer. As we sat to wait in the waiting room a nurse would come and ask if we were okay and if we needed anything, we knew where to fi nd her, she kept reassuring us that everything would be okay. The hospital and continued from front page from health to ENRD, however the team itself the gentleness and compassion shown from the “They are not just for tourists,” Mr Durnford will see a difference. The fi rst change will be to Hospital staff made me feel positive. In Hun- said, “they are for island residents as well, so introduce two landfi ll operators for health and gerford UK we had a village surgery, another we want to make sure that there is a high stan- safety reasons, he also wants to ensure that the welcoming and professional Unit, the Doctor dard of service for everybody on the island. team have good communications, are provided gave me his card and told me if I needed him This gives us an opportunity to fully appreci- with emergency fi rst response training and can just call anytime. The service from this surgery ate the hard work the guys do. What these is- manage their own human resources. Mr Durn- was amazing. For the few times I have been in sues are, and once we are better informed we ford urged the public to be, “conscious of the Hospital here on St Helena I have been looked can make better informed decisions.” fact that we’re trying to improve a service [...] after very well, but that was 6+ years ago, I can On the 1 April Sanitary Services were trans- give us time and more importantly, be respect- tell standards have dropped over the years, from ferred from Public Health to ENRD and the ful for the guys who are doing this hard job.” booking a doctor’s appointment, to waiting in senior managers took the opportunity to fi nd The two managers were determined to tackle the waiting room and also visiting a relative in out what diffi culties are faced by the frontline the task with the tools available and quickly hospital.