President launches national dialogue on social renaissance |21 July 2011

The event was attended by Vice-President Danny Faure, ministers, top government and church officials, politicians and community leaders from the districts.

Among the speakers was Designated Minister Vincent Meriton who is also the chairman of the dialogue’s national steering committee.

A video presentation showed testimonies of regretful commercial sex workers, and drug addicts who now have to go through the pain of injecting already scarred hands with needles to inject harmful substances.

Guests heard senior citizen Rita Savy say how life used to be and how it has changed, and a counsellor offering suggestions how adults should meet young people half-way by trying to understand them better when guiding them away from social ills.

President Michel described the testimonies of the victims as shocking, but also noted that in other presentations, several young Seychellois spoke with great hope that we can turn around the situation the country is in.

Andy Jean-Louis had, for example, said substance abuse, prostitution, crime waves and preventable illnesses are known to have affected earlier generations of past eras, but communities had overcome the worst of the scourges.

Mr Michel said in a world where – despite major technological progress – there is a lot of conflict, inequity and suffering, but the people of Seychelles are, so far, an example of a society that has achieved much and remained peaceful.

“We are proud of our achievements and who we are as a people, who live in harmony, but if we are not careful we could capsize. We could lose all we have accomplished together as a people,” he said.

He talked of the many young people who instead of working to prepare for their future become slaves to drugs, the many parents who no longer recognise the very children they raised, those who devalue themselves to get money for drugs which have become like a basic need for them.

Mr Michel asked how many boys and girls have lost their dignity through selling their bodies.

He also referred to the wastage of resources like medicine, or others at school or work places because of lack of responsibility or negligence, carelessly wasting what they are not paying for.

There is a high level of domestic violence, theft and other crimes, he said, but thanked the many organisations helping curb them.

He said we as Seychellois need to come together to tackle these social ills, adding he is confident we can overcome the challenge.

“As President I’m determined to do what is necessary to put our country back on the right tracks, but I need the support of everybody to do it,” he said, noting he knows most of us are keen to take the necessary action to improve the situation by eliminating the social ills.

Nation will come back to the launch in our next issue tomorrow.