- Dr Frank Anthony to region’s youthsMINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, is actively encouraging the use of edutainment among Regional youths as a means of challenging the difficult issues that they face.

Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of a symposium on the subject, defined in some quarters as the use of entertainment as an educational tool, Dr Anthony reportedly cited the success of the use of edutainment in the drive to limit the spread of HIV/AIDS, suggesting that other challenges such as teenage pregnancy, youth empowerment, unemployment and substance abuse could well benefit from a similar approach.

According to a release from the CARICOM Secretariat, the minister, who was tasked with declaring the meeting open, was of the opinion that young people are not the cause of the problem as some would like to think, but rather the solution as they have within them the drive and ideas necessary to make it happen.

He urged those youths present at the caucus to use the forum to share best practices in edutainment, and to see it as an opportunity to perfect their techniques and to arrive at a Caribbean position to present to the World Edutainment Conference scheduled for New Delhi, India next year.

The one-day symposium, held at the International Convention Centre, Liliendaal, just outside Georgetown, was a collaborative effort of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana (PYARG) programme.

Among its objectives were:

* To bring all Caribbean edutainment groups together in Guyana for the first Caribbean Edutainment Conference

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

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

* To create a database of edutainment performers and organisations around the Caribbean.

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

* To discuss the extent to which edutainment can be used to highlight the social issues affecting youths and effect positive behaviour change.

Speaking also at the opening ceremony was the director of the UNFPA sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Mr. Harold Robinson, who told the gathering that they should use the success of the young Caribbean athletes at the Beijing Olympiad as an example of what hard work and commitment could achieve.

Noting that the Caribbean athletes were a fine example of the potential that lies within the youths of the region, Mr. Robinson said that that potential cried out for inclusion in the planning and execution of programmes for attaining sustainable development in the Region.

He said edutainment had shown the way with respect to presenting information in a manner appealing to young people, and urged that the art forms should be used to address the concerns related to sustainable development.

The programme began with song, dance, poetry and drama performed by the Region’s youth including a stirring performance by Lisa Paul, the young Guyanese singer who performs the CARIFESTA theme song.

Participants at the conference were drawn from The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.