Rose Place youths get into the swim of things

Twenty-two youths from the Rose Place area are now part of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Amateur Swimming Association (SVGASA) Grassroots Programme.{{more}}

All blessed with natural swim talent, they will now have an opportunity to be formally trained as swimmers at the Shrewsbury Pool at Ratho Mill for 12 weeks, each Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The programme is part of a Mustique Charitable Trust funded initiative, in which youths from six communities will be exposed to the sport.

Meanwhile, Empress Modupe Jacobs, of the Invershall Rastafari Movement, who is responsible for the enrollment of the Rose Place youths in the Grassroots Swimming programme, told SEARCHLIGHT last Sunday that it is more than just the sport.

“…We are here to prove is that a lot of good things can come out of Rose Place,” Empress Modupe said forcefully.

In outlining the overall objectives of the youths’ participation in the organised swimming, Empress Modupe said: “What we are trying to do is to instill some discipline in the children through swimming… It requires them to be on time, and when they come here also they have to have good behaviour, as part of our programme is building self-esteem, teaching them discipline, teaching them responsibility for community.

They are representing the entire community of Rose Place.

“….We are simply targetting the youths of Rose Place to participate in programmes like this, because it is not very often that you see funds are available for young people who come out of impoverished areas like Rose Place to get an opportunity to get the training for some of them to become potential amateur swimmers, professional swimmers or even Olympic swimmers in the future,” she added.

Empress Modupe revealed that the current batch of swimmers were all part of the Cultural Environmental, Education Enrichment Programme, also put on by her organisation.

Apart from the contingent from Rose Place, another group of youths from the Layou community is part of the first three week period of the Grassroots Programme.

President of the SVASA Stephen Joachim, at his election to the top post in January of this year, stated that one of his desires was to have more poor people get involved in the sport of swimming. (RT)