The Caribbean Youth Explosion is into its second week in The Bahamas and into its second phase, the CARICOM Youth Workshop and Parliament.
The first week of the three-week Explosion saw a highly successful Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), the Caribbean Youth Exchange which took place on the island of Eleuthera.
The Youth Explosion, with the theme “Making Choices, Taking Action”, is a series of three events organised by the CYP, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) involving young people from the Caribbean and Canada. The Canadians took part in the CYP’s Youth Exchange.
The participants in the Exchange which had as its theme, Healthy Lifestyles, said they enjoyed nine days of physical and intellectual activities which stayed true to the theme. Dr Ivan Henry head of the Caribbean CYP described the Eleuthera Exchange as very successful and paid tribute to the youths.
“They proved to be very adaptable and made sure the sessions were interactive. They accepted responsibility willingly and instituted their own systems to deal with situations,” he said. He pointed to the publication of a daily newspaper and a “people’s court” as just two of the institutions which the youth established during the Exchange which ended with a cultural programme on Sunday night. He was also loud in praise for the Royal Bahamas Defense Force which he said lent yeoman service to the Exchange.
The participants interacted with the Community on Eleuthera and enjoyed a day of friendly sporting competition, church services and a social function among other things.
The CARICOM Workshop began on Monday with chief facilitator, Ms Peta Ann Baker, building on the ideas and suggestions which came out of the CYP session and establish the resolutions which will be debated in the Parliament to be held in Nassau on Thursday October 1.
The Workshop will also sensitise participants to the role of Parliament in a civil society and discuss methods of empowering youth and their organisations to make optimum use of available institutions to ensure that their concerns get to policy and decision makers.
A number of international agencies including the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The University of the West Indies, the Inter American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), the CYP, UNFPA and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as well as the Government of the Bahamas have provided facilitators and resource persons for the workshop.
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), IDB, OAS and IICA lent financial support for the Workshop and the Parliament while American Airlines provided generous assistance through a special fare for participants in the Explosion.
Among the issues which are expected to be debated in the Parliament against the defining of a vision for the Caribbean in the 21st century, (which CARICOM Heads of Government will have on their agenda at next year’s Inter- sessional Meeting of the Conference) include Participation and Democracy, Education, Poverty and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. The latter topic will be the focus of the third leg of the Explosion at the UNFPA Summit in Barbados from October 5-7, 1998.
The Youth Parliament will be held in Nassau at the House of Assembly and will follow the rules as established for the Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP). The ACCP is an institution set up by CARICOM which had its inaugural meeting in Barbados in 1996.
