Helpful Hands youth group wins Speaker’s Youth Debating competition

The youth group Helpful Hands have emerged winners of the 4th edition of the Speaker’s Youth Debating competition.

The winning team comprised Abiane Saul, Sherlyn and Nygil Drepaul. They faced off with Child Rights Ambassadors in the finals of the competition, which was held on Thursday.

The moot for the debate was “Prioritizing infrastructure in Guyana is essential for fostering regional growth and connectivity.”

Drepaul, 22, claimed the title of best speaker. Drepaul and his team argued the importance of prioritizing infrastructure development but not at the expense of investing in other sectors such as agriculture, tourism and technology.

The competition was at Public Buildings in Georgetown.

Manzoor Nadir, Speaker of the National Assembly, stated that “the goal is to continue to bring Parliament closer to the people.”

“So we decided to work in a number of ways including reaching out to very young children granting them information regarding democracy, Parliament and a number of other issues,” Nadir said at the prize giving ceremony.

Ministers Charles Ramson, Sonia Parag and Anand Persaud were at the event.

The judges of the final debate were Dr. Valerie Gorisami Smith, Dr. Delon Fraser, and judge Sarfraz Yacoob.

Nadir said the two winners from last year’s debating competition will be representing Guyana at the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in New Zealand.