SKNY, the new youth movement that burst on to our streets at the end of last year, is growing at an unstoppable pace. You can’t go anywhere without seeing someone in an SKNY T-shirt.
Aiming to bring together the young people across St Kitts and Nevis to bring about positive change in their local area, SKNY is already having a massive impact.
SKNY have organised football and basketball tournaments and health and wellness fairs around the nation. Last Saturday’s SKNY basketball event in Sandy Points, attended by over 200 people, was a huge success. The tournament saw young man Graeme from constituency number 6 come out victorious from the first three point shoot out, to win first prize. Teams from across most constituencies turned up to take part in the much anticipated 3 on 3 competition, which saw a very close race between Exodus and the Overcomers, with Exodus winning by only one point score with 21 whilst the Overcomers stood at 20.
SKNY member Stuart Versailles, said “we really wanted to do something that would get young people off the streets and being active, so we decided to do this basketball tournament, generously sponsored by Dr Wilson. It means a lot that he has come and joined the youth of constituency 5 tonight. Now people are coming up to me saying, when is the next tournament going to be?”. Labour candidate and former basketball star Dr Phillips believes that young people who want to play professional basketball need a proper facility to hone their talents. He is championing the development of an indoor training facility so that young people aspiring to be basketball professionals have the opportunity to do so.
Dr Wilson, present at last weekend’s basketball event himself, stated, “this event is good because Sandy Points needs more extra-curricular activities for young people. The work of SKNY has been very helpful in engaging young people in a positive way and I must say I really support the movement.”
Also enjoying the positive atmosphere at the event was Dr Gilbert of constituency 7: “it’s very good to see these young people out enjoying themselves. Look at their faces, everybody is happy, everybody is having a good time. I would love to see this happen in my constituency.”
As part of an SKNY health week, SKNY has been organising health fairs across the island to give people the opportunity to have their blood pressure and blood sugar checked by nurses and raise awareness about health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes and sexual health. Joined by constituency 1’s Dr Martin, Errol Laws, an SKNY member from East Basseterre, hosted a health fair yesterday, and said: “as an active SKNY member I’m proud to be holding this health fair in constituency number 1. SKNY is helping keep Kittitians healthy one person at a time!”.
Local residents of constituency 7 are looking forward to getting their blood tested by Dr Drew himself at the health fair happening at Conaree Lawn later today. Ahead of her appearance at the health fair in central Basseterre on Friday, Minister Liburd commented “I’m looking forward to showing my support for the great things SKNY is doing with young people in my constituency at the SKNY health fair in independence square.”.
