COORDINATOR of the Youth sub-committee of Carifesta X, Mr. Alfred King, has stressed that there will be a unique and enviable role for the participation and involvement of youths during Carifesta slated for August 22 to 31 in Guyana.

He made this remark last Friday during the weekly press briefing to update the media on Carifesta X preparations at the Secretariat, Middle Street, Georgetown.

“…one cannot dispute the indispensable role art can play in the process of behavioural and attitudinal change and in recognising that, we thought that there should be this unique focus on youth for Carifesta X,” he said.

King said there will be two major activities for the involvement of young people: Edutainment - packaging education with entertainment and the youth village.

“This unique opportunity through the youth village will make them aware of some issues affecting young people throughout the Caribbean region and they will be allowed to participate and appreciate what is happening and be involved and develop some meaningful life skills, and be attached to meaningful activities as well,” he explained.

King said a special edutainment symposium will be conducted with six edutainment groups including from St. Lucia, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and Suriname.

The objectives of the symposium include:

* To discuss the status of edutainment in the region, share best practices and chart the future development of Caribbean Edutainment Art forms;

* To discuss the impact of edutainment on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how the lessons learned can be applied to the other issues confronting the Caribbean society;

* Create a database of Edutainment performers and organisations around the Caribbean;

* To foster greater awareness among participants of the social issues negatively affecting the development of the Caribbean region and;

* Discuss the extent to which edutainment can be used to highlight the social issues affecting youths and effect positive behavior change.

The youth village aims to provide a youth friendly and organised environment that will provide edutainment for youths and will have 12 interactive centres for youths to develop their talents and express their creativity in various forms while at the same time addressing needs and issues affecting youths.

The coordinator said the youths will be exposed to issues relating to health including HIV/AIDS, healthy lifestyle, nutrition, exercise and the importance of these things to create a healthy and positive lifestyle.

King said there will be centres dealing with music, dancing, environmental issues, edutainment, adventure and discovery.

He said UNICEF will be responsible for posting positive messages around the village and youth and creating a youth technology centre.

“…things are looking well for the focus on youth for Carifesta,” he attested.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, informed the media that two additional countries Curacao and French Guiana have confirmed their participation.

“We have also had a request from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Martinique and we are looking into this…,” Anthony said.

He noted that the ministry currently has an increase in volunteers with 955 unpaid persons from various regions onboard.

“We have been engaged in a number of infrastructural developments,” he also noted.

The minister said work is presently being carried out on the eastern and western stands at the National Park, Georgetown, and repairs will commence soon on the northern stand and stage.

Additionally, he said at the Sophia Exhibition Centre, work will be done on the culvert along the Dennis Street side of the complex, while constructions are being carried out on the annex where local exhibitors will be housed and soon to the main building to facilitate the foreign delegations booths.

“We would also commence very shortly developing the site for the culinary art exhibition and food sale,” he noted.

He said the secretariat has already engaged in procuring the refrigerators, stoves and other equipment necessary for culinary art facility.

The minister said preparations for the installation of lights at the National Stadium has started and a technical team from Moscow will arrive on May 27 to start the installation process.

“…so very shortly we will have the lighting towers going up at the Stadium and these will be powered by two independent generators,” he added.

He encouraged applicants for the child art competition which closes on May 31 and noted that on June 2, work will start on a child art mural on the seawall stretching from Sheriff Street side of the seawall to Conversation Road.

“This will be a massive mural and it will be painted by the children of Guyana…,” he emphasised.

Anthony said that the first mural of the public art projects was unveiled at the Umana Yana, Kingston, last Wednesday and another public art project will be unveiled at the Walter Rodney Museum shortly.

He said the secretariat has visited Regions 3, 5, 6 and 10 to date.

“I think these visits have been quite fruitful in terms of lifting awareness in the region and we have taken the opportunity when we go out to these regions to form regional Carifesta committee,” he asserted.

The minister also said a number of regions had already formed committees and will submit plans to the secretariat to start allocating delegations to the region and upgrade some of the facilities in these regions.

Anthony noted that the Carifesta caravan has been achieving quite a lot of success and quite a lot of attraction.

“…it is helping us not only to lift awareness but to develop the spirit of Carifesta…,” Anthony observed.

Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr. Manniram Prashad, said that there are a total of 50 hotels available with a room capacity of over 3000 which have been inspected to ensure high standard and quality service.

“We also are planning to have four training seminar sessions starting in the first week of June in front desk management, hospitality…we are also training taxis also to make sure that the hotels confer with standards,” he pointed out.

Prashad said some of the hotels are already booked directly by some of the participating countries via the internet.

He said the ministry is also exploring other facilities to accommodate persons including local participants and visitors.

He said the bed and breakfast programme has been re-activated with over 100 persons already onboard; however, the homes will be inspected to ensure standards are maintained.

Another important area, the minister noted is air transportation, “if you go online now or you try to get a flight coming to Guyana you will find it is not easy, not because of Carifesta only but because of the summer vacation people are coming back in large numbers and they are coming back for Carifesta also…that is a added attraction.”

He said the ministry has been working with the airlines including LIAT, Caribbean Airline, Zoom In and Constellation Tours to assist in facilitating the participants and also the possibility of increased flights.

He said from June 1 Delta, the largest airline in the world which has recently merged with North West, will begin service with three weekly flights from New York to Guyana and Sky Service will commerce flights from Toronto, Canada from July 1 while Travel Span will resume service from June 28 with flights on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

“The Carifesta fever is picking up throughout the Diaspora…and more and more people will come onboard,” the minister noted.

“We are preparing for this influx of visitors for Carifesta…the airlines are gearing towards Carifesta,” he assured.

Art Director, Dr. Paloma Mohamed, said the Technical Training Project in theatre management will commence on June 2 at the National Cultural Centre.

However she noted that over 1500 responded and came up with a design to include as many persons as possible.

“The first thing we did is that we approached another international donor for support to train some additional young people…we will be training about 500 to 600 people legitimately and we are going to be giving everybody else who want an opportunity to be trained except that we cannot provide a stipend for those persons,” Mohamed explained.

The training team will include 18 top Guyanese trainers supported by nine overseas trainers.

Next Wednesday at 17:00h at the NCC, there will be an audition for a male dance troupe to participate in the opening ceremony of Carifesta X, she noted.

Also, she said the National Communications Network (NCN) will be launching a talent search in a week and the finalists will be identified to play a prominent role in Carifesta X.

Mohamed also informed that work on Guyana’s signal piece for Carifesta X has begun.

She also revealed that NCN will also be airing their Carifesta documentary from next week and a ‘Were you there Symposium’ will be conducted for persons who were part of the last Carifesta hosted in Guyana in 1972.

“Then we are going to continue our advertisement campaign,” she noted.