After a 5-year hiatus, the National Youth Awards will make its grand return on Monday, September 26, 2022 where 20 Dominican youth will be awarded for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields.
The 13th National Youth Awards organized by the National Youth Council of Dominica (NYCD) was launched during a ceremony held at the Prevo Cinemall conference room on Wednesday.
The NYCD recognizes youth between the ages of 16 and 35 who have contributed to and created positive change in the lives of others within their community and/or nation.
“The event promises to be a night of distinction and celebration when 20 of Dominica’s youth will be recognized for their stellar contributions in their respective fields,” First Vice President of the NYCD and Chairman of the National Youth Award Committee, Phael Lander said while addressing the ceremony.
According to him, the NYCD launched the awards in March 2022, and nominations were opened.
“Unfortunately, we have not been receiving as many nominations [as] we would like to see and we have taken a decision [that] from today, [for] an additional two weeks, to have the National Youth Awards nomination period opened,” Lander explained.
He explained further that initially, the council had indicated that the youth awards would have been held in August but recognizing that young people should be given enough opportunity to be identified, the Council took a decision to postpone the event to September 26.
“It is going to be a grand event,” Lander stated.
Meanwhile, President of the NYCD, Ashma McDougall, has announced that two new awards will be added to the category this year.
They are the Outstanding Youth in Diaspora Award and the JCI Dominica Fadelle Yankey Excellence in Leadership Award.
McDougall explained the reason for the introduction of the Outstanding Youth in Diaspora Award.
“Youth are not necessarily within Dominica and we have seen a mass of young persons migrating for educational opportunities, some who don’t return,” she noted. “However, they are making remarkable contributions outside of Dominica regardless of where they are, and so we think it is necessary to ensure that we can continue engaging with these young persons.”
She continued, “I am really excited [about] the two new awards and I will speak to them because it is necessary to justify why we had to introduce [them].”
She called on the private and public sectors to come on board to recognize and support youth in this fantastic venture.
Nominations for the awards are an online process. Interested persons can log on to any one of the NYCD social media platforms or call the office at 448-6944 for administrative assistance.
There is a judging panel of seven individuals tasked with the responsibility of reviewing the nominations and identifying who will be receiving these awards.
The event which was last held on June 24, 2017, at the Dominica State College (DSC) will take place at the Emerald Movies Theatre.
Nomination for the event which has as its theme “Celebrating the Vision”, closes on August 17.
For what exactly are they been awarded? For supporting Skerrit and his miserable government? McDougall and Lander are DLP clowns with a bright red plastic nose covering their brown nose which they got from kissing the CMs behind. My God, was has my country come to? Every corner even the smallest one is polluted with corruption.