Victoria to get peace park-Youths’ gift for peace |25 April 2007

The park will represent the symbol of their pledge to uphold peace and the harmonious bond that exist in the country.

This was revealed during the launching of the ‘Gift for Peace’ project in Seychelles last week, a project propelled by the desire to engage communities on the journey towards the creation of a better world. Under the project, different countries are required to dedicate diverse offerings to uphold peace in their respective countries.

The launching of the ‘Gift for Peace’ project here, which is an initiative of the Seychelles Scouts Association, has also been timed to coincide with the Scouts Movement’s centenary anniversary which scouts associations worldwide were celebrating last week.

It was decided at the 36th World Scout Conference last year that each national scout organization must present a gift for peace to their country for the occasion.

Because of a pre-requisite to involve youth’s organizations from all corners of the country into the project, the Seychelles Scouts Association is embarking on the project in collaboration with the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC), which is a parent body for all youth organisations in the country.

The ‘Gift for Peace’ project was formally launched by the Minister for Community Development & Youth Vincent Meriton during a ceremony held at the International Conference Centre.

The minister gave the government’s commitment to support the project through the allocation of a plot of land on which the peace park will be erected.

Speaking during the ceremony, scout Daniella Hoareau said that the park will be situated in the vicinity of the Stad Lanmizik, although no date has yet been fixed as to when work on it will start.

She said that as a Nation, “we have been blessed with a history of relative calm, yet we should not fall prey to complacency, as we live in a globalized world and one of multicultural realities”.

Among other guests attending the launching ceremony for the ‘Gift for Peace’ project were Designated Minister Danny Faure, the Minister for Education Bernard Shamlaye, the Minister for Employment & Social Affairs Marie-Pierre Lloyd, some members of the diplomatic corps, newly elected Chief Scout Shelton Jolicoeur and the chairman of the SNYC, Lenny Lebon.