|
Bequia
youth stand out
By
H.L. Belmar
Little
is known of the Commonwealth Youth Service Award, and few know
that the students of the Bequia Anglican High School won that
award in 1991, partly because of humility and partly because our
students prefer to be doers rather than hearers.
In
1991 they won their award for their efforts to preserve and protect
the environment, and once more in 2003 they have been awarded
for their role in the environment through the UNESCO Sandwatch
Beach Monitoring and Analysis Programme. Readers of the Searchlight,
page 37 of July 25, 2003, would recall that at the Regional Sandwatch
Workshop in Dominica our students' presentation was second to
Cuba's. We believe the efforts of the Cubans, and the involvement
of the Cuban government made them deserving winners, and we share
the region's burdens of protecting the beaches that are washed
by the Caribbean Sea.
Seventeen
projects from seven countries in the region submitted projects
for the Commonwealth Youth Award with St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
Jamaica and Guyana coming out on top. While the release from our
National Youth Department was on its way, our students were hard
at work, as on 31 July, while most other students made the beach
their playground, students of the Bequia Anglican Primary School
had their first real taste of Sandwatch, as the Children against
Poverty summer workshop kicked into full gear. They learnt how
to measure longshore currents, erosion and accretion, and conduct
debris analysis. In their enthusiasm over 40 large garbage bags
of debris (made up primarily of plastic water bottles and other
plastic material) were collected for the solid waste truck. The
beach was a much cleaner place and swimmers would be a lot safer
for some time to come.
Last
Wednesday and Thursday, PADI Open Water Dive Instructor, Laury
Stowe, and Assistant Instructor, Ben Williams of the Dive Shop
Bequia Dive Adventures trained students of the Bequia Community
High School and Bequia Seventh Day Adventist Secondary in the
skills of Scuba diving.
The
instructors used state-of-the-art equipment, classroom sessions,
and guided programmes on the beach and near the reef, to help
the Sandwatch students develop a greater appreciation of the coral
reef as a dynamic force in our ecosystem.
The
students' enthusiasm and appreciation were wrapped up by Tammy
Williams 'From this Scuba Dive Programme, I have learnt that not
only are the creatures on land important, but those underwater
as well. It's a different environment and everything can exist
with one another, depending on each other for survival. I had
lots of fun while learning'.
The
Vincentian, 15 August 2003
|
