East Caribbean Youth Assessment Final Report - EQUIP123.net

3. ANTIGUA Prepared by:Mr. Andy Euzebe: andyeuzebe@gmail.comMs. Carowlinea Fields: cfield3@towson.eduI. Based on your participation in the assessment, what do youth face in the EasternCaribbean region and in Antigua in particular?A. Positive Contexts/RealitiesIn Antigua there is a genuine love for competition especially in the area of sports. There areNational teams established on the island for Football (soccer), Basketball, Cricket, Netball, Golf,and Swimming. In many communities there are leagues established where youth compete for aperiod of months to claim ultimate bragging rights as champions for the coming year. Manyvillages have several teams that compete and this in turn provide a form of organization forcommunity youth to be occupied doing something positive.Majority of the Eastern Caribbean islands boast of an educational system modeled after that ofthe British colonizers, and in turn have a strong foundational system. Youth in the Caribbeanhave the opportunity to start education in the Eastern Caribbean, and then advance their studieswhether online, or via larger accredited campuses in the Caribbean or abroad should they chooseto do so.Another area of competitiveness lives in the Steel Band culture of the Island. The steel band isnow being taught in most primary schools and has recently been incorporated as a musicalinstrument used in the CXC examinations that each youth faces in fifth form. Should he or shechoose to use this instrument, they would be tasked to actually arrange a piece of music for theirexamination. Schools as well as churches have taken up the steel pan as a staple instrument ofmusic, and many young people busy themselves during the week for steel band practices.A-part from the school and church, there are various Steel Bands on the island who host a Schoolof Pan, where youth are taught to read music, as well as perfect the craft of playing a steel drum.Bands such as the Cable and Wireless Hells Gate Steel Orchestra Est. 1945, the Cool andSmooth Ebonites Steel Orchestra, the Stanford Group of Companies MAHICO Stars Orchestra,the West Indies Oil Company Gemonites Steel Orchestra, and the Carib Seas Harmonites SteelOrchestra are the most recognized bands of the island, all carrying their own school of pan.There is also a strong dance culture on the island. The Antigua Dance academy has seengenerations of young women pass through its doors, and is still very much a part of the culturalcommunity on the island. The Ministry of Culture as well hosts a school of dance which consistsof the top dancers in the primary schools which represent the island around the region as well.B. Challenging Contexts / RealitiesIn the Eastern Caribbean youth are being faced with the same issues all around. Media resourcesall shout claims of youth violence, lack of jobs, teenage pregnancy, AIDS/HIV, and lack ofresources for youth, while failing to highlight the educational opportunities afforded to youth inthe Caribbean.55