THA, Youth development ministry to sign MOU

Minister of Youth Development Foster Cummings, left, with THA Secretary for Youth Development Joel Sampson, right, technical adviser, Division of Education, Ann Natasha Second, and another official at Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, Lowlands, September 17. -

THE Tobago House of Assembly and Minister of Youth Development and National Service will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to share ideas and programmes to help support young people.

The MOU was announced on September 17 at the ministry's official launch of the Amplify programme in Tobago at the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, Lowlands.

Minister of Youth Development Foster Cummings said: “We are deep in discussions with the THA to establish an MOU between the ministry and the THA Division of Youth, and the intention is that where there are ideas in Tobago that we can utilise in Trinidad for the development of our young people in Trinidad, we hope to be able to do so. And where there are ideas and programmes in Trinidad that we can establish and launch in Tobago, we are doing so.”

He said, "Wherever there is development taking place on one island, we should be willing to share it with the other. It does not matter where the idea originates.

He said his ministry believes in taking action to address some of the ills plaguing society.

“We have a lot of complainers in TT. We have some experts of everything with no solution to anything, and they take up a lot of our media space telling us about all the problems we have in this country.

"I am not going to consume myself and time focusing too much on the problems, because we have an understanding of what the problems are. You don’t need to remind me everyday about what the problems are.”

He said he will make time for people who have practical suggestions to "improve the situation and give our youths a fighting chance to be the best version of themselves, you have my attention for a particular period of time.”

He said stakeholders are already on board including the National Training Agency (NTA), the special reserves of the defence force, COSTATT, UWI and UTT.

With a record 22 murders on the island for 2024, Cummings said he shared the concerns many people have about safety. He recalled living in Tobago many years ago and leaving his doors unlocked and going about his business.

Cummings said it pains him when he sees some of the news stories involving some of the young Tobagonians. He said this drives him to invest more in the future of the country.

“We need to arrest some of that kind of behaviour and to do that, we have to steer our young people in a positive direction.

"I want to challenge, today, my friends in the THA, my colleagues in the ministry, the private sector, all those state agencies involved in learning of one kind or the other. Let us determine today that we are going to make some extra emphasis and effort to pay some effort to youth development in Tobago and in Trinidad.”

He added: “When you sit in your boardrooms, let that be an agenda item. When you sit at the decision making table, let it be an agenda item that we are going to single out some resources and dedicate it specifically to the development of our young people; your children, your grandchildren, your nieces, your nephews and the children and grandchildren of your friends depend on that.

"The Tobago or the Trinidad that you would like to see 20 years from now depends on what you do today, it depends on the investment you make today. We are going to continue this investment for the benefit of the young people of TT, I give you the assurance on behalf of the government.”