Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has urged youth in St. Kitts and Nevis to strive for excellence and highlighted several social and self-empowerment programmes introduced during his terms as prime minister to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of autonomy in the youth as a result of facilitating access to materials and funding.
“I expressly encourage the Federation’s youth to strive for excellence in any career field of their choosing. I urge them to make social and financial independence a priority! I implore the young people to push for self-empowerment in an effort to better equip themselves with the tools and knowledge necessary to design and command not only their futures, but also that of our beloved Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” said Dr. Douglas, as he presented awards at the 7th Special Sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly to honour the Federation’s 25 Most Remarkable Teens for 2017.
In congratulating this year’s honourees, the former prime minister noted that their individual journeys, though different, have led them to the same momentous outcome.
“They have each triumphed and achieved feats too great to go unnoticed. It is for this reason that we thought it was extremely important to join with their parents, friends, well-wishers and the wider community to present these awards to them tonight. These awardees are highly deserving of the honour that is being bestowed on them this evening,” said Dr. Douglas, who noted that the ceremony continues to be held during Youth Month, with the theme for this year being “Encouraging our Youth to Soar for Much More.”
Dr. Douglas was said it would be remiss of him not to mention that today, the youth of the federation, are far more resilient than they were twenty or even 10 years ago.
“Their resilience is largely attributed to the hard work that went into creating the vision that I, my administration and others who preceded me had for the Federation’s future. We had envisioned a future where technological advances were seen in multiple areas of national development. We had envisioned a future where our youth were able to access the information and the tools necessary to transcend all socio-economic barriers present in our Federation today as we speak,” said Dr. Douglas, who served as prime minister for 20 years.
He noted also that it was for this reason that a host of social and self-empowerment programmes such as the REACH Programme, the One-to-One Laptop Programme, and the SEED (Small Entrepreneur and Enterprise Development) Programme, and many others, were introduced by his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) Administration to conceptualise, implement and to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of autonomy in the youth, and to facilitate access to the materials and funding needed to aid them in achieving their goals.
He used the auspicious occasion to extend congratulations to the present Director of Youth Empowerment, Mr. Pierre Liburd for his leadership to date, and former Director of the Youth Empowerment, Mr. Geoffrey Hanley, for the vision “he shared with our government about 7 years ago that led to the creation of this award for our young people.”
“The youth stand here today, proof of our hard work and commitment to the young people of the Federation over the years,” said Dr. Douglas, who is also the Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher 6 since 1989.
Other opposition and government representatives also presented awards.