(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) “Empower us now for the survival of the Community,” was the impassioned appeal made by Dominica’s Monelle Alexis, Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps to Caribbean Community leaders on behalf of youth across the Caribbean Region.

She was delivering her remarks at the opening of the special summit of CARICOM Heads of Government on Youth development convened to receive the Report of two-and-half-years of qualitative research conducted by the 15-member CARICOM Commission on Youth Development.

Ms Alexis bewailed the absence of several Heads of Government from the Summit, noting that they had failed to grasp the symbolic significance of the moment, considering that the year 2010 was designated as the International Year of Youth

Moreover, she continued, the moment was further lost in a cruel situational irony that those who purported to be gravely concerned about the future of youth and had mandated the Commission to conduct the research, did not find the time to attend and receive the Report.

Nevertheless, she noted that youth would continue to contribute to the development process and pleaded for the voice of youth in Community development and at the national level to be stronger.

In keeping with the theme of the Summit – YOUTH NOW for the Community Tomorrow – Monelle declared that the old paradigm of “youth are leaders of tomorrow,” must give way to a new kind of philosophy that “youth are creative and valuable asset; not a problem to be solved.”

“We want to participate NOW; we have demonstrated repeatedly that we can contribute now; if the future of the Community rests squarely on our shoulders as the mandate of Heads of Govt. had implied, then our dress rehearsal begins NOW,” she averred.”

Consider whether those decisions that you have taken about us without us have worked; consider whether millions of dollars spent on youth related interventions have worked. Consider that they might not have worked because you did not involve us …”

She further highlighted Suriname’s Youth Governance structure as a best practice in youth participation that could be benchmarked by the rest of the Caribbean.

Charge us, she declared, and we guarantee you, you will reap returns on your investments.

Following her speech which was greeted with thunderous applause, Ms Alexis led her peers in nine minutes of silence as a demonstration of what she said was their displeasure with those Heads of Government who would not be attending the Meeting. The nine minutes, she declared, represented the nine million young people across the region.

The Chairman of the Conference, the Hon Roosevelt Skerrit in his remarks cautioned the youth to be reasoned and responsible in their calls for greater participation, pointing out that millions were already invested in youth development.

Suriname’s President and Lead Head of Government for Youth in a direct reference to the protest quipped: “I came to this podium to declare the Summit open but after that demonstration, perhaps I should declare it open and closed.”

The business sessions of the Summit continues on Saturday when Heads of Government and Heads of delegation will really get down to business to comb through the Report with the Commissioners. Chairman of Conference gave his nod of approval at the opening ceremony but had indicated that there were some ‘grey’ areas for which he did not approve. Those would be discussed on Saturday.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org