Seychelles Ocean Festival |20 November 2015

Winners of art and creative writing competition rewarded

A popular and important educational activity on the schools’ calendar for many years, the Seychelles Ocean Festival Art and Creative writing competition featured once again this year.

Schools from Mahe, Praslin and La Digue took part in the competition as well as the Kashiwano primary school from Japan who was once again involved.

The winners received their prizes earlier this week at the Paradis des Enfants in the presence of the principal secretary for environment Alain Decommarmond, among other guests and students.

“This year’s theme ‘Our Ocean Our Responsibility – For the love of Seychelles’ blends very well with the concept of the Blue Economy, for a small island developing state. Seychelles’ determination to protect its underwater world for its future generation has always been a high priority on the government’s agenda,” said PS Decommarmond in his opening speech.

He added that the annual Seychelles Ocean Festival, which has been celebrated over many years, is also a way to educate our island people on the importance of our ocean in our everyday life.
He remarked that Seychelles’ ocean space covers over 1.3 million square kilometres, the largest among the Indian Ocean islands and second largest in Africa after South Africa and 24th largest in the world.

He noted that our ocean is home to 3284 different species of fish.

“It is for this reason that we intend to declare 30% of our exclusive economic zone as protected, which will put us three times above Aichi target set under the United Nations Biodiversity Convention for countries to declare protected 10% of their oceans by 2020,” he said.

The top three winners in the poem competition are:

Primary category: 1st Nathalia Pillay from Anse Etoile, 2nd Anushka Payet from Baie Lazare and 3rd  Kendra Vital from Anse Etoile.

A special mention went to Keira Jeannevol from Anse Etoile primary school.

Secondary category: 1st Carine Francois from Anse Boileau, 2nd Lissa Faure from Beau Vallon and 3rd  Gamatis Henriette from Independent school.

The top three for the story competition are:

Primary category: 1st Santina Moumou from Beau Vallon, 2nd Liam Barbe from Anse Etoile and 3rd Kelley Laporte from Independent school.

Secondary category: 1st Chrise Francoise from Anse Boileau, 2nd Amelia Hammond from Independent School and 3rd Belmira Elizabeth from Beau Vallon.

The top three for the art competition are:

Primary category: 1st Liam Barbe from Anse Etoile, 2nd Yannick Malbrook from Anse Etoile and 3rd Michel Pillay from Independent school.
A special mention went to Joshua Nourrice from Independent school.

Secondary category: 1st Carlos Bamboche from Beau Vallon, 2nd Michelle Bamboche from Beau Vallon and 3rd Kian Laurence also from Beau Vallon.  
A special mention went to Shakira Pool from Independent school.

The best overall primary school in relation to the Seychelles Ocean Festival is Anse Etoile while the best overall secondary school is Anse Boileau.