Media, Youth and Culture Committee of the National Assembly hosts meetings on Praslin and La Digue |19 October 2021

The Media, Youth and Culture Committee of the National Assembly undertook its first official visit to the islands of Praslin and La Digue from Friday October 15 to Saturday October 16, 2021.

The committee was led by its chairperson, Hon. Wavel Woodcock, and he was accompanied by other members of the committee namely Hon. Philip Arissol, Hon. Naddy Zialor, Hon. Kelly Samynadin and Hon. Noline Sophola.

The committee visited several locations on Praslin such as the Dove Centre, the Water Sport Centre, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) Office, the Seychelles National Youth Centre and the Eve Island Swimming Pool.

The members also had meetings with groups and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) such as the Unique Foundation, FRESH FOCUS, TRASS (Terrestrial Restoration Action Society Seychelles) and the PARFE Association.

On La Digue, the members were able to visit the Youth Office and host meetings with the board members of L’Union Estate as well as Artists of L’Union Estate. To wrap up its visits, the committee visited the Sport Complex at L’Union Estate.

The main aim of these visits was to get a better understanding of what progress, limitations and opportunites that the departments related to media, youth and culture are faced with on these two islands. As the committee that has the jurisdiction to ensure monitoring and analysis of policy, administration and the budget of the media, youth and culture departments of the government, as well as to scrutinise matters within the ministerial portfolio of media, youth and culture, the members found it necessary to conduct these visits so as to be in a better position to carry out their mandates more effectively.

During the visits, several departments put forward some noteworthy points, the main concerns being the financial constraints they face which hinders the number of activities they wish to do. Furthermore, many places were struggling with deterioration of their infrastructure which causes concern for the safety of staff as well as those that use their facilities. Moreover, many raised the point of having limited staff, and that this makes it harder to manage certain given tasks which they wish to complete in a timely manner. These are issues that they noted have lingered and persisted for many years.

Some departments expressed that though they are facing some of the above-mentioned issues, they have started to mobilise and have formulated concepts and plans to try and find the best way forward. They have been having meetings, consulting and cooperating with partners to see what can be done to improve on their existing shortcomings.

Hon. Woodcock thanked all who were present for the visits and meetings and assured them that all their points would be noted and evaluated further.

The other members of the committee also took the opportunity to ask some pertinent questions related to the media, youth and culture departments to gain a better understanding of what actions are needed to be taken in the future.

While on its visits, the committee was also accompanied by proportionately elected member on Praslin, Hon. Doyace Porice and Hon. Rocky Uranie, the directly elected member for the Inner Islands.

The accompanying photographs show some highlights of the visits.

Press release from the National Assembly secretariat