YOUNG PEOPLE in Barbados are overflowing with ideas, says head of the Commission for Pan African Affairs, Dr Deryck Murray.
Reporting on the progress of the Social Identity Renewal and Integrated Upliftment Strategy (SIRIUS), which was started two years ago and spearheaded by the Commission, Murray said there was lots of interest in animation and computer programming. He added participants were also involved in a tourism project in collaboration with the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation.
“We’re very interested in creating everything from small monuments to replicate the interesting sites in Historic Bridgetown And Its Garrison and property, to developing what is a preparatory initiative, where we look at the facades throughout Bridgetown and remake them, while preserving the buildings as a temporary solution to those buildings that are at risk of running to ruin. That particular project is in train,” he said.
Murray also said a number of participants were being trained to write project and grant proposals, and that some were already writing proposals for the Ministry of Culture. He said one of the challenges they encountered was putting the ideas in writing in a coherent way and developing a business plan around them.
“One thing that we always say to young people is that we generate a million ideas on any given day. It is if you’re willing to go through the discipline of properly documenting that idea, so that you can go after funding internationally,” he said.
Adding his voice to the successes of the SIRIUS project, Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley said they were building seeds to position the youth to be innovative and not be just consumers. He added he had asked the youngsters to develop cellphone technology.
Lashley and Murray were speaking at yesterday’s launch of the 2014 Season of Emancipation, which includes activities for Crop Over.
A public lecture by Dr David Browne at the Members’ Dining Room in Parliament on April 28 at 7 p.m.; a folk concert at Frank Collymore Hall on July 26 (National Day of Significance) and the Emancipation Walk on August 1 are among the highlights of the season.
(YB)
