Shas­tri Boodan

Six hun­dred young peo­ple were in­duct­ed in­to the 4H Youth De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme on Fri­day dur­ing a sim­ple but mean­ing­ful cer­e­mo­ny at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas. Stu­dents from schools across Trinidad proud­ly turned out in their 4H uni­forms, each re­ceiv­ing a cer­tifi­cate and an of­fi­cial 4H pin to mark their en­try in­to the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Over the past decade, the 4H move­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go has ex­pe­ri­enced steady growth as more young peo­ple grav­i­tate to­wards agri­cul­ture, en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness and com­mu­ni­ty-based skills de­vel­op­ment. While 4H in­ter­na­tion­al­ly sup­ports a wide range of youth em­pow­er­ment ac­tiv­i­ties, the lo­cal pro­gramme places strong em­pha­sis on agri­cul­ture, food pro­duc­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in hands-on projects de­signed to build con­fi­dence, lead­er­ship and tech­ni­cal skills.