Vincentian duo among 25 Caribbean participants at UNESCO’s Youth Forum

Two young Vincentians, Shelly-Ann Joseph and Tedra Kirby, are doing their part in ensuring the preservation of Vincentian and Caribbean culture and heritage.{{more}}

They participated in UNESCO’s first Caribbean Youth Forum on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), recently in St George’s, Grenada.

Joseph and Kirby both worked to develop national youth action plans for St Vincent and the Grenadines, which, it is hoped, would be adopted to assist UNESCO in promoting the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The duo also worked with other Caribbean participants to contribute towards a regional youth action plan.

This action plan outlines how youth can assist in their countries with the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The regional plan, which is one of the major end results of the conference, will be presented at UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee meeting in early December in Paris by Grenada, the only Caribbean nation that sits on the committee.

The objectives of the workshop were to build knowledge of youth on the convention’s concepts and mechanisms and their role in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage; foster dialogue between youth and international representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations on strategies to strengthen the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage; and orient youth toward activities and collaboration geared at safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage, building in the process mutual respect for the heritage of others.

The term “Intangible Cultural Heritage” refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills — as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith — that communities, groups and, in some cases, what individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage.

A total of 25 Caribbean youth from The Bahamas to Guyana participated in the week-long event.

The government of Belgium and Grenada partnered with UNESCO to make the event a success.