PHILIPSBURG:--- Team VSA Youth Vybz Video Contest came to the end on Thursday June 19th when the winners were announced at the A.C. Legislative Hall. Sara Victoria Martinez placed first for the Solo Submissions with her video on promoting eating healthy. Courtesy of Winair she was awarded two round-trip tickets to any destination the carrier flies. Roshawn Beckford took 2nd place with his video on Depression and Sabrina Jno-Baptiste took 3rd place with her motivational video on exercising.
For the team submissions first place went to Ricardo Arnell, Ayman Baroud, Sophia Brans, and Jeriah Richardson with their video that touched on work ethics, bullying and relationships with colleagues. Second place went to a video on Bullying by Tisiana Hart, Celine Mayeko-Coklee, Matthijs Mazereeuw, and Adrian Yee. Third place was awarded to Elvin Alberts, Joemi Brazier, and Ian Soriano for their video message on different types of peer pressure. Some of the winners came from a particular school while other teams were comprised of groups of friends who attended different schools.
All 11 videos were well received by their peers as well as the older generations who showed up on Thursday for the announcement of the winners. Other video submissions touched on teenage pregnancy, physical abuse, drugs and alcohol. "Altogether the video submissions exceeded our expectations and gave us great material to work with in finalizing them as possible government Public Service Announcements (PSAs). They have made the work of the Ministry a lot easier and what is great about it, is that these messages are for the youth by the youth", said Minster Cornelius de Weever in a press release on Monday.
Next year, Team VSA Youth Vybz will launch their second Video Contest and will work together to come up with other cool projects for the youth by the youth. Winners from this year's video contest will have their videos played on Channel 15. A CD will also be made available to each school which will be used as discussion points for various classes. Subscribe to TEAMVSA YouthVybz on YouTube to watch the videos and join Youth Vybz on Facebook to stay informed.