Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honourable Sarah Wescot-Williams gave the Keynote Address at the UNESCO Young TV Producers’ Workshop at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort on October 18th at which two local TV Producers from the Department of Communication Hubert Flanders and Ruby Pierre-Louis were selected to attend the Workshop on behalf of St. Maarten.
"You have been chosen to be a part of this workshop and we hope you will bring your skills as well as your energy. The CBMP in partnership with UNESCO is hosting this workshop for young television producers on October 18th & 19th 2012 in beautiful St. Maarten at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort," commented the Prime Minister.
The objective of the workshop was to develop the capacities of 30 Young Caribbean television producers in the making of high quality TV programmes, enabling St. Maarten to be part of an international network of TV professionals engaged in HIV prevention and increase the number of credible programs for license-free exchange worldwide.
The two St. Maarten representatives were be among TV producers from 16 countries in the Caribbean who should produce programs on priority issues in HIV prevention including multiple concurrent partnerships, low levels of condom use, gender-based violence, masculinities and homophobia.
In a letter sent to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Dr. Allyson Leacock, Executive Director of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CBMP) expressed her thanks to the Prime Minister for her support in the Project; "Thank you for your support and participation in the Opening Ceremony of The CBMP/UNESCO Workshop for Young Television Producers which took place at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort. The Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS is honoured and proud of the fact that you have lent your support to this initiative. Your message encouraging Caribbean people, especially the youth to be effective voices to go out and create programmes to lobby against HIV stigma and discrimination, was timely and resonated well with this new generation of creators," read a communiqué from the CBMP.
UNESCO’s immediate importance is to build the capacity of 30 young television producers from 16 countries through 3 workshops hosted in Antigua, St. Maarten and Jamaica to produce 30 high quality TV documentaries that could be used for programmed exchange with other broadcasters of the world through worldwide network, which operates from UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.