Foreign Affairs hosts Essay Competition to raise public awareness

Rayon James, Zavielle Primus and Moses Davis are the first place winners in three different categories of an essay writing competition organized by the Foreign Policies and Research Department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The competition, which targeted youths aged 15 to 25 was divided into three sections: senior secondary, community college and the public.{{more}}

Participants between the third and fourth form were asked to discuss the issue of immigration in the form of deportation, while the students of the community college were to advise the Government on how to effectively deal with the issue of climate change on the economy.

The public participants were asked to discuss whether or not development is attainable without integration.

The second place winners in the competition were Demali James (Bishop College Kingstown), Curtis Johnson (SVG Community College) and Cassica Hutchins (public), while Ozari Gurley (St Martin’s Secondary), Renique Hadaway (SVG Community College) and Jai-Len Williams (public) placed third in their respective categories.

According to Permanent Secretary Lanceford Weekes, the competition was organized to raise the visibility of the ministry, particularly foreign services, to the Vincentian public.

He explained that foreign affairs have contributed significantly to the country’s development and the people should be knowledgeable about foreign policies.

Melissa Abbott, Digicel representative, in her brief remarks, said that her company sees the need to lend support to educational ventures and the essay writing competition is one of them. She noted that the competition was of value because each participant was able to expand their knowledge.

“We felt that each participant would have learned something that they didn’t before; hence we believe that this was a valuable exercise with long-term benefits.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs Camillo Gonsalves, in his address, stated that all of the topics highlighted the importance of foreign policies in the development of the country. He commended the winners and said that the judges had a difficult task in choosing the winning essays.

Gonsalves encouraged them to continue to be engaged in the national conversation by thinking, reading and writing about these issues and ways to move towards development.

“Everything can’t be expressed in 140 characters in a tweet and everything can’t be discussed effectively in a Facebook post; sometimes you have to write more than 25 words to get your point across and to think about something.”

He said that the essay competition is an excellent start and that he was looking forward to the winners entering the competition again next year. (CT)