The objective of the Scout Association of TT is to create responsible citizens who are active in their local, national and international communities.

So the association has called for volunteers to help in the national vaccination process to ease the burden on the public health care system.

Mark Ainsley John, national scout commissioner, explained that the purpose of the Scouts was to contribute to the development of young people to achieve their full physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social potential. Its members are between the ages of seven and 26, with about 5,000 youths and 1,500 adults.

'Our core principle is embodied in our scout promise, which is made by every single member of the movement when they join. The promise simply says you are promising to do your best in three things - do your duty to God, to your country, and to help other people.'

All through the pandemic, he said, the adults in the Scouts, all volunteers, were asking how they could get involved, as the organisation was about helping people.

On assessing the recent covid19 spike, the shortage of medical professionals, and the ongoing vaccination rollout, John went to Dianne Dhanpath, deputy national scout commissioner of planning, to discuss what the association could do with respect to adults volunteering to help with the vaccination process.

Dhanpath noted that the Scouts had several activity centres throughout the country. The initial idea was to volunteer their north and south centres to the Ministry of Health as vaccination centres.

As a former employee with the ministry, Dhanpath took the initiative and contacted the ministry. However, since site evaluations would have been a long process, that idea was put on hold. Instead, the Scouts put forward the idea of volunteers.

'They were only too happy to have that kind of assistance. We recognise the health system is overwhelmed, so we were willing to do anything we could at this point to assist in any way they required and we were capable of offering.'

So on May 20, the association put out a call to its membership on social media for volunteers.

Since then, about 50 have volunteered to be assigned, depending where they live, so as to limit travelling and exposing themselves to the virus, as well as to limit their time on the roads during the state of emergency. They are also being rotated every two days so they can rest after being on their feet for days, as well as to limit their exposure to the hundreds of people who go to be vaccinated each day.

The Eastern and North Central regional health authorities have already contacted them. A team started work at the National Racquet Sports Centre in Tacarigua on Monday, and another at the UTT Campus on Monroe Road, Cunupia, on Thursday

They did data entry, guided people through the vaccination process, and help with hand sanitisation and making sure people followed the health protocols.

In addition, the Tobago Regional Health Authority asked for volunteers to make calls to help with contact tr