March marked the first annual Health and Safety month at The Anguilla Electricity Company Ltd. – ANGLEC – under the theme “Risk Takers are accident makers – Avoid the worst , put health and safety first”.
The 2019 Health and Safety Month focused on the overall well-being of staff at ANGLEC and the importance of community safety with activities geared towards the improvement of health, safety and welfare.
The program, led by Shenique Clare, ANGLEC’s Health and Safety Officer, invited several vendors and practitioners from the community to engage employees in sessions dealing with topics such as Healthy lifestyles, mental health awareness and dealing with loss. Other activities included health or safety themed challenges for staff:
Step competition – March 1st to 29th
– Winner: Ivor Ible
Weight Loss competition with fitness classes – March 4th to 29th
– Winner: Mariscia Roach-Grant
Safety Team Challenges – March 5th to 26th
– Winning Team: Valentino Muckett, Christia Lake and Mariscia Roach-Grant
Audiometry Testing (all Staff) – March 18th to 21st
Health and Safety Desk (all staff) – March 25th and 26th
ANGLEC School Open Day “What We Do” (public education) – March 22nd and 27th
Health Fair (all staff and family) – March 28th
“Health and Safety plays a vital role in ANGLEC’s operations and our goal, barring acts of God, is to reduce to as low as reasonably practicable, all the hazards that our workers are exposed to on a daily basis. We also took the opportunity to focus on preparing for and recovering from disasters,” Clare remarked.
She continued; “Our jobs can be stressful at times and it is important to periodically recollect our thoughts and recalibrate our bodies. The Health Fair held last week was geared at doing just this with medical checks, foot care, physical and mental wellness, healthy eating options as well as natural alternatives for healing. We included the Open Day events under the theme “What we do” in our continuous quest to engage the youth of the nation. We invited students from the High School and Primary Schools to ANGLEC’s Generation and T&D departments. Students were given the opportunity to view and participate in live Linesman training exercises and work scenarios as well as a tour of the Generation facilities.
ANGLEC’s Human Resource Manager, Erimel Franklin, further endorsed the importance of Health and Safety month. “As a utility we are very interested in health, safety and wellness programmes. They serve an important step to improving health, productivity and job satisfaction of our employees and by extension, reducing employer and employee health care costs,” she stated.
To quote Jemila Morson Hodge; ANGLEC’s PRO “We need our safety messages to reach as many persons as possible, and I think Shenique and the Health and Safety team did an outstanding job informing staff and the public this month. Seeing a child take on the challenge of climbing a pole or eagerly asking questions on electricity generation, are beautiful moments to be a part of. Not only did they enjoy the opportunity, but they learned first-hand the importance of our work as an essential utility. Now, they understand why we ask for caution on the road when crews are working, or why emergency outages occur. We also ensured that anyone interested could be a part of the Open Day via live streams on social media and radio. Sharing live experiences brings new life to the safety messages we share and we encourage those who missed out to visit our social media accounts for replays of what took place.” Want a glimpse into the 2019 Health and Safety month activities? Want to get the latest ANGLEC updates? Visit the ANGLEC Facebook page via www.Facebook.com/AnguillaElectricity.
