Thirty-two Schools Schedule to Participate in Student Leadership Camp 2007

Thirty two primary and secondary schools will be represented this year at the third staging of the Student Leadership Camp, scheduled for July 8-13.

The Camp is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and the University of The West Indies and seeks to facilitate the training of students as peer links in their respective schools.

“Annually we target students with leadership potential. Among the students often selected are prefects, head girls, head boys and various club leaders,” Mrs. Joy Chambers, Camp Coordinator said.

Mrs. Chambers, who is also the Adolescent Reproductive Health Project Manager in the Health Promotion and Protection Division of the Ministry of Health, explains that the training materials to be used are prepared with the needs of the students in mind.

In explaining further she said the camp will concentrate heavily on areas such as healthy eating, physical activity, sexual and reproductive health, leadership training, drug awareness as well as violence prevention. The emphasis on these areas she explains is critical at this stage of development and will facilitate each student functioning as peer links in their schools.

With the mode of presentation being crucial, Mrs. Chambers said that the Bashy Bus will be used to convey information related to adolescent reproductive health and sexuality. The Bashy Bus is a mobile initiative of Children First that allows the organization to reach adolescents in underserved communities island wide. The Bashy Bus uses adolescents as master trainers to convey important reproductive health messages to their peers in an edutainment manner using role play singing and dancing.

Student Leadership Camp 2007 is being conducted in collaboration with the Change from Within Project at the UWI, Mona.