ROSEAU, Dominica, Oct 28, CMC – The Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin La Rocque and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Sir Hilary Beckles, are to be honoured by Dominica as the island celebrates its 38th anniversary of political independence from Britain on Thursday next week.

La Rocque, a Dominica national, who is serving his second five year term as the region’s top public servant and Sir Hilary, the Barbadian-born academic , will receive the Sisserou Award of Honour, the island’s second highest award for their contribution to public service and education respectively..

They will be joined by Dr. Curvin Ferreira (medicine), former minister Julius Timothy (politics and business) Jennifer Astaphan (public service) and Cecil Peter Shillingford in the field of disaster management.

President Charles Savarin will present the Meritorious Service Awards to Madura Walters (education and community service), Margaret Albertha Jno Baptiste (public service), Christopher Pacquette (business and religion), Paul Alexander (community service and culture), Dr John Toussaint (agriculture and business), Charles Watty (agriculture), Fr Mitchel Favalier, Fr Jacob Etienne Guiste (religion) and Glenda Bertrand in the field of early childhood education.

Delvin Esprit will receive the Service Medal of Honour for his work in sports while the four Long Service Awardees will be Josephine Jno Lewis in the field of nursing, Christianie Bully in the field of community service, Althea Phillip in the field of nursing and Cyrus Edwards in the field of sports.

Dominica gained its political independence from Britain on November 3, 1978.