By Anastasha Elliott
Federation’s youth, along with facilitators and stakeholders last Saturday came together for training session training as part of the UNESCO Youth Path Project.
The youths — 15 of which were from Nevis gathered at the St. Paul’s Community Centre where they were educated on the heritage of the Federation and the viability of entrepreneurship as a career goal.
Several individuals namely, Winston Lake former manager of the Belmont Estate; John Guilbert, Director of the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society and
Zack Nisbett founder and curator of the Edgar Challenger International House Museum made presentations.
As his presentation, Lake gave an overview of the history of the Belmont Estate, which along with Black Rocks are the two heritage site on St. Kitts that have been chosen for the Youth PATH Project.
The Youth PATH is an UNESCO initiative that targets 15-25- year -old residents. Its aim is to teach the youths to optimise economic opportunities, create socio-economic empowerment projects and enhance the value of sustainable heritage tourism sites.
The site chosen on Nevis is the Nevisian Heritage Village, of which Guilbert gave an overview.
He said the village largely depicts the evolution of the Nevisian social history through housing.
The houses at the site are replicas of the ones used during the Carib-Indian era and are furnished with antiques and relics of the period.
Both Lake and Guilbert spoke to the youths about the tangible and intangible aspects of the heritage sites.
The featured presentation for the event was delivered by Nisbett titled “Heritage, Culture and the Impact on Tourism.”
He spoke on the integral role that Kittitian and Nevisian heritage plays in the creation and
sustainability of a superior tourism product.
Nisbett told the youths that the heritage of the two islands is unique and said that with that realisation; natives should seek avenues to capitalise on it.
He encouraged the youths to consider entrepreneurship as a career option and reminded them that perseverance and motivation is vital to their success.
Following the ceremony and presentations the participants were divided into two groups and proceeded to undergo training in the dynamics of team building and teamwork, which was facilitated by Junie Hodge.
UNESCO Secretary General for the St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission.
