CARICOM Secretariat Staff Talent Celebration to engage Children in Animation

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat annual Staff Talent Celebration takes place on 25 – 29 November 2019, at the CARICOM Secretariat under the theme “Culture and the Arts: Family and Children First!”. Staff will showcase their talents and that of their families in several categories such as the visual arts, craft, animation and digital media, horticulture, among others.

A key highlight of this year’s Staff Talent celebration is an animation workshop for students in the age group 10 – 14 years from the Sophia Care Centre. Georgetown, Guyana. The workshop will be held at the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters on Saturday, 23 November 2019.This is being conducted in collaboration with the Guyana Animation Network (GAN).

In 2018, the Secretariat invited students in the 12-18  age group from the Sophia Care Centre to attend and participate in various activities during the event. Meant to make a difference in these young lives, the sharing of talents and interaction with youth in vulnerable circumstances,  were well-received by students, their accompanying teachers and staff of the Secretariat and their family members.

The Secretariat continues to advance its work programme in this sector.  In a comment, Deputy Programme Manager for Culture at the CARICOM Secretariat, Ms. Riane de Haas-Bledoeg, noted the Caribbean’s unique position to benefit from international export of its culture and creativity through digital media and animation.

“The Secretariat has been collaborating in raising awareness on animation and digital media in the Region and has promoted the use of animation in learning environments, public education and safeguarding cultural heritage,” Ms. De Haas-Bledoeg said.

With funding from the European Union,  the Secretariat last month convened animation and digital media workshops targetting at-risk youth as one of the interventions of the Crime and Violence Project (CVP) Component of the CARIFORUM-EU Crime and Security Programme, under its Tenth European Development Fund.

The workshops were conducted in Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago by Animae Caribe with a trainer and students from the Animation Department of the University of Trinidad and Tobago. More than 70 youth benefited from the training. Each animation workshop included a train-the-trainers component.

Members of GAN were among the beneficiaries of the train-the-trainer’s component of the animation workshop held in Guyana at the Sophia Training Centre in October. The animation workshop, under the CARICOM Secretariat Staff Talent Celebration, will be facilitated by trainers from GAN. The Secretariat intends to sponsor three of the best performers in this animation workshop to participate in GAN’s Animation Summer Camp in 2020.

Source: CARICOM TODAY