UNICEF workshop ends in youth action plans

The mood was celebratory at the House of Culture today as youth participants from around the country marked the end of a week full of meetings. Groups from all six districts presented plans of action made during a UNICEF workshop which they intend to take back to their respective communities.

Steve James, Peer Educator, Y.F.F.
“The plan of action for we today is education. We di focus on the level from ten to eighteen inna school and outta school. So kids from ten to eighteen, most ah them weh we di target dah from primary school level because the youths them today di grow up, di come outta standard six and they noh know fi read and write. So we come up with a plan of action that twenty of us weh day peer educators and a young lady weh dah from Manatee Village, Gales Point say that some of the kids down there, fifty percent can’t read and write weh di graduate today and can’t even spell their own name. So we come up with a plan that we want go down there for two weeks, twenty of us, and we plan to train ten of them each for the day, teach them reading, writing, arts and craft, and music.

I like the programme, I like what UNICEF, BEST di do because dah wah nice programme, the youths, especially teenagers because today a lot of them di come out ah school and go inna gang. Gang leaders just di give them guns and they turn to violence and that dah noh the solution, education dah the key to success.”

On September seventeenth, XChange will host the festival “Fear for Dreams, Dreams For Reality.” The event takes place at the Bliss parking lot and will include dancers, poets, artists, drummers, and a number of other live performances. It will include a special appearance by Trinidadian Soca artist, Machel Montano.