Independent School wins Apdar public speaking competition |18 July 2019

Dr Herminie in a souvenir photograph with the teams who took part in the final leg of the competition yesterday

The Independent School has come out victorious in the inter-secondary school public speaking competition organised by the Agency for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation and the Ministry of Health, under the theme ‘Drug Ends all Dreams –be a sport, Give support’.

The final leg of the competition was held yesterday morning at the STC conference hall and saw finalists from three schools, namely Independent, Perseverance and Praslin schools take to the floor in teams of four to deliver their 16-minute presentations before the judges and members of the audience were invited to pose questions to the teams.

The team from Praslin secondary school took to the floor first in which they provided statistics as to the number of people who are addicted to drugs in Seychelles.

“To date, 4,220 addicts are on the methadone programme and from that statistics, 225 are from our native island of Praslin. The problem exists in our schools and is a social dilemma affecting all of us,” they noted.

The team asserted that it is imperative that all in society work together to eliminate drugs in the country as everyone has a role to play in tackling such a big issue.

Team Perseverance secondary’s presentation entitled ‘Drugs, destroyer of our future’ also focused on the destructive effects of drugs on society. They noted that the methadone programme and needle-exchange programme cost the local health industry a lot of money and that drugs need to be dealt with as soon as possible before the situation worsens.

Referencing the family unit, sports and physical and mental well-being of individuals, the team detailed the negative effects that addiction has on these aspects of life.

Similarly, the team from Independent School spoke of the methadone programme and how much it costs taxpayers. Their general message centred on giving recovering and recovered addicts second chances and opportunities within society in a bid to stop them from falling back into addiction.

All three presentations proposed that more needs to be done by authorities to tackle the drug problem at the root, for instance by intercepting drug traffickers and dealers as opposed to simply targeting drug addicts.

Secretary of state for prevention of drug abuse and rehabilitation, Dr Patrick Herminie, who was present for the event, stated that the presentations given by all three schools were very relevant and that he was impressed with the standard of the competition.

“I want to thank the Apdar committee and the Ministry of Health for organising the competition which I think was of a high standard. What impressed me is the youth’s knowledge on the issue of illicit drugs. Many people do not understand the problem and today we have seen at least nine young people who understand what addiction is and what needs to be done to deal with the issue and this gives me a lot of hope. When you engage the youths, it is them who will eventually deal with and tackle the issue and it is our youths that are affected most by drug abuse,” he stated.

The team from Independent School which comprises Elisha Malow, Andrea Jean-Louis and Beatrice Estico said they were very happy to have won first place and that they decided to be different and take an alternative approach as opposed to simply saying no to drugs.

“It wasn’t that easy because the main topic was to not just say no to drugs but it was also about not discriminating against addicts so we had to find a way to show that we care about the addicts. It wasn’t that easy because we tend to think of them as bad people and that they are responsible for their own bad choices when it is actually not the case and there may be many factors that push them into drug abuse,” Beatrice Estico said.

Praslin secondary school was awarded second place while Perseverance secondary school came out third.

Other prizes were given out to the best speakers in yesterday’s round. Keisha Meriton from Praslin secondary school won best introductory speaker while Anissa Verlaque was awarded best main speaker and best overall speaker. Beatrice Estico of Independent School was awarded best concluding speaker.

The team from Independent School also won the special award for Most Creative Work.

Pointe Larue secondary school, one of the six other schools who were eliminated in the first round, won for best research while Anse Boileau secondary school, also eliminated in the first round, won the best themed speech with their presentation entitled ‘Stop Stigmatisation Syndrome’.

A total of nine schools took part in the public speaking competition. Of the nine, six were eliminated in the first round, namely Anse Boileau, Pointe Larue, Beau Vallon, Mont Fleuri, Plaisance and Belonie secondary schools.

The competition was organised to commemorate the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on June 26.