Out of the twelve registered schools, the Riviere Doree Anglican Combined School copped the top prize in the Primary Schools Climate Change Video Challenge under the UN Development Programme’s Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership’s (UNDP J-CCCP) ACT Now Saint Lucia Communications Campaign.

Banse La Grace Combined took the 2nd place with the Ave Maria Primary School emerging 3rd. Other schools fielding teams in the competition were Plainview Combined, Ciceron Combined, Patience Combined, Augier Combined, and Derisseaux Combined. Plainview and Derisseaux received notable mentions with accompanying prizes for the innovation demonstrated in the products they created out of plastics.

Khadija Halliday was named winner of the second youth social media video challenge which targeted secondary and tertiary level youth. Both competitions invited video submissions proposing solutions which can help reduce climate change impacts resulting from poor waste disposal practices.

The prize-giving ceremony was held on Friday June 15th at the National Skills Development Centre. Attending the event was Minister of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development Hon. Dr. Gale Rigobert, staff representing the Departments of Sustainable Development and Education, as well as corporate co-sponsors of the competitions Digicel, Unicomer, FLOW and representatives of the UNDP’s Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership.

In her remarks, Hon. Dr. Gale Rigobert applauded the school teams for raising the profile of Saint Lucian youth in the “growing body of journalistic content” being created on climate change via social media all over the world, and “demonstrating that we are a nation which sees our youth as citizens with the right and the ability to participate in the important conversations about things that impact our sustainability.”

The A.C.T Now Saint Lucia campaign was supported by the UNDP, in partnership with the Government of Saint Lucia, with funding support from the Government of Japan, through the J-CCCP.

Ms. Chisa Mikami, UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative for Barbados and the OECS noted that “we are pleased with how the campaign in Saint Lucia has unfolded. Saint Lucians have been involved at every stage – participation in the initial survey, reviewing, testing and approving materials and assisting in the uptake and dissemination of these materials.” Ms. Mikami further commended school teams, principals and teachers for “enriching the campaign through the innovation which was evident in their submission.”

While on island, the UNDP J-CCCP team will visit schools to further discussion ways to keep climate change under priority focus at the school level, including the recently developed Green Schools Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA).