“Carve your own path and hold onto your dreams” – First Lady

First Lady Sandra Granger joined members of the Buxton Theatre Arts Company on a school programme, aimed at inspiring students at the Beterverwagting Secondary School to make better choices during their formative years as they approach adulthood.

The programme, which is a collaborative effort between the Education Ministry and the Buxton Theatre Arts Company, was first launched on March 3, 2017, at the Bladen Hall Secondary School, under the acronym REACH, which is meant to encourage young people to Respect themselves and others, to be Empowered, Aspire for greatness, Conquer their fears and challenges and Hold on their dreams, values and dignity.

Delivering the feature address, Mrs Granger urged the students on Friday to remain focused on accomplishing their goals. “I urge you [to] discover the beauty in yourself. Carve your own path, hold onto your dreams and keep moving forward. Whatever your faith, each one of us is unique. No one else can take your place in this place at this time. We all have dreams and some idea of who we would like to become and were we would like to go in this life. So hold on to your dreams,” Mrs Granger said. The First Lady also spoke on the impact of social media and Information Communication Technology (ITC) and its potential to both positively and negatively impact their lives. “Social media can be very cruel because it encourages bullies to believe that they can hide behind a code name and be as abusive as they wish to other people. They are neither kind nor considerate. I love all the fantastic things that we can access through Information and Communication Technology. But I fear that these new innovations may be depriving us of the ability to empathise with each other. That is, to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and try to understand what that person is experiencing in his or her daily life,” Mrs Granger said.

President of the Theatre Company, Tremayne Henry, said drama is used as a tool to inspire and motivate members of society.

Meanwhile, Cassandra Fernandes, who is also a member of the Theatre Company, said the group saw the need to implement the programme to ensure that young people are given the tools to protect themselves at a time when there are so many negative reports.

Over 2000 students have so far benefited from this initiative since it was first introduced, including students from Bladen Hall Secondary School, Buxton Secondary School, Annandale Secondary School and Lusignan Secondary School.