Girl With a Purpose (GWAP)

Are You Jamaican/Guyanese?: You'll Need a Visa for St. Maarten!

caribbean map
Originally uploaded by thebestcindy

If you're a Jamaican or Guyanese citizen, you'll soon need a visa to visit the Dutch island of St. Maarten (Sint Maarten).

 

St. Maarten will be introducing this visa requirement in order to cut down on the illegal immigrants going into the island from Jamaica, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.

 

Prime Minister Sarah Williams, who also has portfolio responsibility for the Ministry of National Security, made this announcement on popular radio talk show in St.Maarten - People's Voice on March 13.

 

This way the government can keep tabs on visitors and migrants to the island.

 

Apparently there are over 8,000 illegal Jamaican immigrants in St. Maarten. (The population of St. Maarten was estimated to be 37,429 in 2010).

 

Visa requirements are already in place for Haitian and Dominican Republic citizens. 

 

(I would like to thank thebestcindy for the use of her Flickr inset photo of the Caribbean map.

 

When you click on the map, St. Maarten can be found at the middle-right-hand-side of the map, just above Antigua and Barbuda to the far right).

 

Gillian

 

 Sources Include

 

1) Nationwide Radio, News at 7:00 a.m., March 17, 2011

 

3) Article,"Visa requirements for Jamaican's and Guyanese soon", by Steven Cyrillien via SXMIslandtime.com, March 13,2011

 

2) Article, "Sint Maarten", via Wikipedia.org, accessed March 17,2011

 

Student (Travel) Health Insurance With a Difference

Students Travel Abroad to Costa Rica
Originally uploaded by iueast

If you're a foreign student in the USA, then you know how important travel is during the course of  your study abroad.

 

This may be for varied reasons, including travelling to take advantage of a work-study programme, or visiting your home country, or vacationing in another US state, or internationally.

 

It's important to have travel health insurance that covers you, just in case you get ill and need to return to the US in the case of an emergency, but also covers doctor's visits and hospital stays, whilst you're travelling within or outside of the USA.

 

(Medical bills can be very expensive in the USA and internationally, without proper health insurance coverage).

 

SevenCorners.com is one such company that provides comprehensive student health insurances:

 

Their site has all the information you need in order to choose the best insurance coverage, for all your travel needs.

 

E.g. the site has:

 

1) A handy dashboard at the top of the home page, that  provides quick links to popular things to do on the site,  like finding insurance plans and providers that meet your particular needs and making insurance claims

 

2) Hyperlinked resources, on the left-hand-side of the page, that provide varied information such as:

 

a) A travel guide that enables you to choose an insurance plan, based on whether you will be travelling within or outside the US

 

b) Travel warnings feeds for different countries

 

c) Worldwide travel insurance plans that cover you, no matter which country you travel to

 

d) Visitor's medical insurance that covers your family members who are foreign nationals and who may want to travel with you, or stay with you for a specific period of time, during your study period in the US

 

e) Testimonials of people who have actually used their service.

 

The above information and medical coverage provided, help to put you at ease, whilst travelling abroad.

 

So, if you're a foreign student in the US, who envisions that you will travel during your US study programme, then  you should check out SevenCorners.com.

 

Please do so way before your time of travel, so as to ensure complete health coverage and peace of mind, when you do decide to travel, later on in your programme.

 

Gillian

 

Hurricane Tomas' Effect on Jamaica, Projected Path

Tropical Storm Dianmu
Originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Tropical Storm Tomas was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane early this morning.

 

Jamaica experiened a miracle yesterday and today, in that Tomas, now a hurricane, provided Jamaica with tolerable wind gusts and only moderate to heavy rain that fell intermittently.

 

Jamaica's tropical storm warning has now been lifted as the hurricane's outer bands are no longer a threat to the island.

 

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is currently doing an assessment of the extent of the damage caused by then-Tropical Storm Tomas. (It dumped 3 inches of rain on the Eastern parishes of Jamaica).

 

One thing is for sure that God, as in many times past, calmed the storm, for he knew that Jamaica could not take any more battering after the battering we received from Tropical Storm Nicole, over four (4) weeks ago.

 

It's overcast here in St. Andrew, Jamaica; the sun has been fighting to come out all morning.

 

We had wind gusts and heavy rain up until 8:30 a.m. this morning. Light intermittent rain and tolerable wind gusts are now  being experienced.

 

At 10:00.a.m., this morning, Hurricane Tomas was located at 19.1 degrees North and 74.4 degrees West or 150 miles North East (NE) of Morant Poin,t Jamaica, or 160 miles West North West (WNW) of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

 

Maximum sustained winds are 85 mph.

 

Tomas is moving to the NNE at 12 mph. Tomas is expected to keep this general motion for the next 12-36 hours. The centre of hurricane Tomas is epected to pass over Western Haiti and the Eastern tip of Cuba this afternoon.

 

It is reported that is raining heavily in Haiti and authorities there are encouraging persons to leave temporary camps for better shelter, where it can be found.

(We are praying that Hurricane Tomas' effect on Haiti will be minimal).

 

Most businesses in Jamaica resumed operations today, after being closed at 12:00 p.m. yesterday

 

All public schools remained closed, however, at the order of the Ministry of Education and the ODPEM. They will reopen on Monday.

 

Several schools in Eastern parishes have been flooded as a result of rains from Tropical Storm Tomas.

 

150 persons in shelters in the Eastern parish of St. Thomas have returned home.

160 persons are still in shelters in 8 of the 14 Jamaican  parishes. ODPEM is ensuring that all shelters are closed by today.

 

(I would like to thank NASA Goddard Photo and Video for the use of their Flickr inset photo of tropical storm Dainmu which is similar in shape and intensity to what Tropical Storm Tomas would look like, by satellite).

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

 

1) Power 106 FM News at 7:00 a.m.,12:00 p.m.,November 5,2010

2) Nationwide Radio, News at 1:00 p.m., November 5,2010