(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Young people between the ages of 14 – 25 across the Caribbean have at least one thing in common – they have big dreams and aspirations not just for themselves, but also for the future of the Caribbean Community as a safe and secure environment in which Caribbean Youth are empowered to participate and to achieve, as they assert themselves in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The young people of Suriname are no different. In a forthright and open discussion with the newly installed CARICOM Commission on Youth Development, on March 7, 2007, over 50 Surinamese Youth, representing, several youth clubs and community organizations, shared their vision, as well as their views and concerns about the Community’s flagship, the CSME and expressed their enthusiasm for participation in the process.
The discussion forum, which followed on the heels of the Inaugural Meeting of the Commission on 5-7 March 2007, saw several young people articulating the role they could play in promoting the ideals of the CSME, yet concurring that a more concentrated public education programme on CARICOM and the CSME should be implemented especially for the youth of Suriname in order to enable them to identify more with, and feel a sense of belonging to the Community.
“It is our Community and we want to feel that we own it, but right now perhaps because of our remoteness we feel alienated,” remarked one member of the group.
Highlighting several risk factors, which they believed were hampering youth development in the Caribbean, the young people noted that while there was still a high number of youth indulging in risky behaviours with resultant consequences, Caribbean youth on the whole were excelling, especially in areas such as academics, sport, entrepreneurship, leadership and governance.
However, they felt that if youth were fully empowered to participate in the affairs of the Caribbean Community, then the risk factors would be reduced considerably by the year 2010.
It is in this context that the young people lauded the establishment of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development as a positive step towards engaging youth and ensuring that the youth agenda is constant priority within the Community.
It was suggested that the Commission should focus on youth between the ages of 10 – 29, examine the challenges that confront them and provide a framework of solutions to contend with these challenges.
Other suggestions made to the Commission include the need for more attention to be paid to the Disabled. The sentiments expressed indicated that there was a perception of unwitting displacement of disabled youth for whom more equal opportunities needed to be created. As one member put it,” We are disabled not useless.”
The youth of Suriname also called on the governments of the Caribbean to implement measures to ensure that every Caribbean child has access to quality education; that the high incidence of child abuse is decreased and that fathers are more financially and emotionally supportive of their children.
