Youth participants all fired up for S.I.D.S

“To improve economic development, small islands need to encourage young people in taking up science because to tackle all these issues in over fishing and climate change, they all have science involved”

Young people from all corners of the globe who are in Samoa for the third Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S) conference are all fired up.

For many of them, it took several days to get to Samoa and now that they are finally here, they are not interested in wasting time.

Representing the Caribbean and originally from Jamaica is Nicole Webley. Based in Paris, she is participating in the S.I.D.S, T.A.L.A.V.O.U Youth Forum being held at the To’oa Salamasina hall.

Ms. Webley, who is an Assistant Programme Specialist for U.N.E.S.C.O is looking at the issues being discussed at S.I.D.S from a scientific perspective. She believes that the challenges faced by small islands relate back to science.

“In the S.I.D.S conference most of the issues talked about is climate change, biodiversity, over fishing and all of that,” she said.

“To improve economic development, small islands need to encourage young people in taking up science because to tackle all these issues in over fishing and climate change, they all have science involved.

“We want young people not to be afraid of taking up science.”

Ms. Webley believes that if more young people are encouraged to pursue careers in science “it would empower countries locally to build their own resources and to tackle the challenges”.

She said young people are the future, they are the resources.

Not far from Jamaica is Dominican Republic where Gina Rosario comes from.

Dominican Republic is right next to Haiti. Similar to Samoa, Ms. Rosario said the weather is no difference from her country.

“Right now (in D.R) we are in 32 degrees Celsius,” she said.

What are some of the issues that the representative is putting on the top of her list?

Ms. Rosario said she believes that the most important issue for them is climate change.

“We are a small island and we already experience climate change,” she said.

“Our beaches are eroding and sea level is rising with our forests being lit up with fire because of the heat.”

Ms. Rosario hopes to have their voices heard in the pre conference and the official conference next week.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is Comoros where Anthoy Moussa is from.

Comoros is a country in AIMS region, a country next to Madagascar.

Mr. Moussa identified three main issues from his country that he is here to push.

A teacher at one of the University in Comoros, Mr. Moussa said water is a major problem in his country. There are also issues of renewable energy and biodiversity.

“Water is important in our country because we have very difficult access to it,” he said.

“To transport water to our homes a person has to travel about two hours and thirty minutes in order to get to water.

“You would be lucky if you have a car but if not then you would have to travel that distance until you get there.”

The university teacher said that his country also has a rich biodiversity and some species like coelacanth a kind of fish “is threatened by human activities” and getting extinct.

Representatives of our neighboring country of Fiji islands were also at the forum.

Peter Keane Senavanua has a different priority from the Caribbean countries.

Mr. Senavanua said his focus is on inclusiveness of young people.

What he means by that is he wishes to press forward issues with young people that includes people with disabilities.

An employee for National Youth Council of Fiji, Mr. Senavanua said “in Fiji we are slowly progressing” in terms of including people with disabilities.

“We want to get them involved and get them employment,” he said.

“I’m here to look at that and see what I can take back.”

There were more than a hundred participants in the Youth Forum yesterday.

One of their tasks was to work in groups and to take note of issues they want to address.