Adolescent Health pushed essay writing, agro-webinar for IYD 2021

THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH WILL PROMOTE essay writing competition and a three-
day agro-webinar as part of its International Youth Day observances, said Adolescent
Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health Coordinator, Ms. Cilandell Glen
Glen said Guyanese adolescents will match their writing skills on this year’s theme
‘Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health’.
The essay competition and the agriculture webinar will be the Adolescent Health’s flagship
programmes for the one-month series of activities ending September 12, Glen told
www.aroundtheregions.com in an exclusive this week.
“The two initiatives that we are referring to is our essay competition which is geared for
adolescents between 10 to 24 in two categories,” Glen explained.
Adolescents 10 to 16 will participate in essay writing while those 17 to 24 years old will be part
of the agro-webinar.
Prizes will be awarded to first, second and third place winners in both categories, Glen said. She
said more than four dozen participants drawn from around the country will be part of this year’s
three-day agro-novelty.
“The adolescent agro-initiative seeks to engage 50 persons across the country to participate in a
three-day webinar where they will be equipped with the tools and skills to do farming. This
initiative is a collaboration between the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the
Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA),” she explained.

Glen explained that this initiative is to help groom future producers to contribute to Guyana’s
food security and awaken participants consciousness to the need for sustainability of agriculture.

“The Guyana School of Agriculture will be teaching the adolescents over the three-day period on
how to do sustainable planting and at the end of the three-day webinar, the participants will be
given gardening packages, which consists of tools and seedlings.”
“However, at the end of the month the participants will be expected to submit a video diary
outlining their farming journey for the month. They will show us and Guyana what they would
have done with the seedlings and most importantly, how they would have started their kitchen
garden. They would also show how they would have utilized the skills gained to contribute to the
sustainability and transformation of food security across Guyana and the world,” she explained.
She is urging adolescents in the 17-24 age group with interest to agriculture to apply ASAP so as
to boost their chances of selection among the 50 participants.
“We are confident that the public will fully participate. However, because there is a cap on the
number of participants, we cannot accept everyone expressing an interest but what we are hoping
for is that based on the level of interest in the activity, the department will seek to make the
activity as one of the main programmes of the Adolescent department.”
“While we are looking for 50 persons for this International Youth Day Project, we have
intentions of extending this,” Glen assured.