Some of the Hope Award winners posing with their trophy.

A GROUP of Christ Church Foundation School students have brought not only pride to their school, but hope as well.

The school's CARIYOUTH chapter was recently awarded the 2005 Hope Award, a national youth award in recognition of their contribution to the development of the individual, organisation and the secondary school community.

They took the top prize over 11 schools.

The students said they were happy with their win but it came as a surprise to their advisor, Annette Maynard-Watson.

"I was shocked because we are only one year old. Some of the groups that were nominated had been doing it for five years," she told the SUNDAY SUN last Monday when a team visited the school.

However, the students said they put in a lot of hard work learning about some of the challenges of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Once they had the information, they had to come up with various ways to share it and engage others in discussion on the matter.

"It was a lot of hard work," Teven Haynes, a member of the group, said. His fellow group members nodded their heads in agreement.

"To know more about the CSME, there was a lot of work to do. It calls for a lot of research, and reading the books that Miss Watson gave us and going online," Kissa Waldron added.

The students said they were able, through weekly meetings, to interact with teachers from all parts of the region – including Haiti, where they learnt about some of the challenges other countries faced.

While they admit working as part of CARIYOUTH has given them a chance to learn more about the region, they still don't view CSME as a band-aid for all of the island's problems, especially at the school level.

"Right now in school, the number of students who go to the clubs are smaller than the group of students who curse the teacher, mark up and destroy the furniture – the new furniture – so do you think CSME can really help that?" Walron asked.

Another student, Ashlyn Scott-Williams, said she was worried that crime would become more of an issue and may reach the levels it is at in Jamaica and Trinidad once the region gets more involved in CSME.

Despite these concerns, the students said they were committed to ongoing activities – including symposiums, hosting a poor people dinner, having motorcades, holding church services, and a trip to St Lucia – as ways of bringing their school together as well as to continue learning and sharing with their regional counterparts.

School principal Robert Cumberbatch said he was pleased that students were willing to participate in positive activities.

"I feel proud. It counters the negativity that you sometimes hear with respect to the youth," he said.

He added that the students' efforts highlighted the need for young people to find ways to access information on their level and use it among themselves. (SH)