Four Seasons Resort hosts children affected by December 7 disasters |19 February 2024

It was a day of fun and games hosted by Four Seasons Resort for a group of 15 children aged between 10 and 16 years old and who were affected by the December 7 calamities.

The group gathered at the tourism establishment in Baie Lazare on Saturday and took part in several activities such as pizza making and snorkelling.

Chief executive of the National Council for Children (NCC), Yasmin Umarji explained that the activity was initiated by the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Patricia Francourt and principal secretary for social affairs Linda William-Melanie.

They sought NCC’s help to see if we could get the hotels on board and get them to host the children, said Mrs Umarji.

“We got a lot of positive responses. Minister Francourt reached out to the general managers and I followed it up with a letter and we have four hotels which responded,” added the NSC chief executive.

The first was Club Med, which hosted the children and their families recently.

The majority of children who were present at the Four Seasons Resort came from Petit Paris, Cascade.

Mrs Umarji took the opportunity to thank the general managers and hotel staff who were very welcoming. “We are giving them a chance to forget what they had gone through, to take the day to have fun,” she said.

The NCC had also brought along a psychologist in the event that any of the children wanted to talk about their traumatic experience, in a more relaxed and friendly environment away from an office or school.

Senior information and communications officer at the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, Phylis Coeur de Lion said the turnout was good and the majority of the children who were identified to take part in the activity showed up.

She shared that some children were slightly timid at the beginning but were more at ease as the day progressed and were able to better interact with each other. “This in itself is a good thing, because even though the children come from the same district, they do not necessarily interact with each other and today is a great opportunity,” she stated, adding that everyone had a go at the multitude of games available including table tennis, table football and football.

Two of the participants, Perry Jules and Jordanian Chang Sam, said they had a great time and learned many things, especially during pizza making. “It was fun, we learned how to put the pizza in the oven and how to prepare the dough and we are very excited for the rest of the activities,” they stated.

The upcoming outings will be hosted by Kempinski Seychelles Resort next weekend and by Constance Ephelia Mahe Resort on March 16.

The accompanying photos taking by Joena Meme show the children taking part in the different activities.

Sunny Esparon