Duke of Edinburgh International Award Seychelles programme |12 December 2022

The bronze awardees

120 young people get Bronze and Silver awards

One hundred and twenty (120) among 127 young participants from across the country, who participated in the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Seychelles programme, were presented with their silver and bronze awards in a short ceremony held at the Dockland Auditorium on Friday afternoon.

 The young people from the public and private secondary and post secondary schools were presented with their pins and certificates in the presence of the principal secretary for Youth and Sports and also chairman of the National Award Operator Board, Ralph Jean-Louis; the British high commissioner to Seychelles, Patrick Lynch; the national director for the programme, Gerard Pierre; Youth and Sports department management; award staff; award leaders and invited guests.

There were 36 who qualified for the silver award and 91 for the bronze award.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award is the leading youth achievement award for young people that brings together practical experiences and life skills to create committed citizens of the world. It helps young people build life-long belief in themselves through inspiring them to become more confident and resilient, and to develop skills in areas such as problem solving, leadership and in communication.

The programme, which operates in 130 countries and territories, is for young people between the ages of 14-24 years and comprises four sections – skills, service, physical recreation and an adventurous journey. It takes six months to complete the bronze and silver levels (12 months if you have not completed bronze) while the gold level, which is the third and final level of the Award, takes a minimum of 12 months to complete or 18 months if you have not completed silver.

In his address, PS Jean-Louis congratulated the participants on their achievements and urged them to continue to serve the community while they carry on with their journey to reach the higher level of the programme.

He also called on them to share what they have learnt to other colleagues while encouraging the latter to join the programme.

All of the participants who spoke to Seychelles NATION said the programme is beneficial to the youth, especially in shaping their attitudes towards living values and volunteerism.

They added that they really enjoyed the activities they engaged in which apart from developing their skills, also permitted them to make new friends. They added that although the programme is tough, it is easy if you concentrate and put your mind into it.

Among them, Joshua Ah-Kong, a 15-year-old bronze awardee from La Digue secondary school, said that such programmes help in shaping the youths’ resilience against anti-social pursuits, such as drugs and alcohol, among other social ills affecting the youths of today.  

He vowed to continue to achieve his gold award and to work to help other youths involved in anti-social behaviour.

In her vote of thanks, award leader, Merrisa Samedi, said that several award centres have made great strides towards becoming autonomous in their award delivery process and award centre management.

She added that the secretariat programme is working to eventually license all award centres delivering the award programme while its staff and award leaders will continue with their training at certificate level at The Guy Morel Institute which will further impact on the award programme.

Ms Samedi noted that they have also reached out to more vulnerable young people, especially young persons living with disabilities, and they hope to increase their efforts to make the award programme more inclusive.     

During the award ceremony, the programme leaders were presented with tokens of appreciation for their hard work and commitment while the audience was entertained with songs by Emilie Marie.  

Brigitte Philoe, award leader for Plaisance secondary school, said that there has been an increase, mostly every year, in the number of young people joining the programme which is very encouraging when considering the number of youths that will help to spread good living values in the country. 

Text & photos by Patrick Joubert