NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (August 25, 2020) — Hon. Eric Evelyn, Minister of Youth on Nevis called on the young people of Nevis to put down the guns and embrace love instead.
The minister made the appeal while delivering remarks at the Hanley’s Road Community Centre on August 20, 2020, during the last in a series of town hall meetings hosted by the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), dubbed “Conversations with the People”.
“We have been going through a period of calm on the island of Nevis for which we are very, very thankful. Unfortunately, very recently we would have had two incidences of gun violence in the Charlestown area, and I am appealing to our young people, please, to kindly put down the guns.
“We’ve had several months without any gun violence, and we do not want to go back there where we were several months ago, and so I am making a special appeal to the young people to kindly put the guns down. Whatever problems you have or whatever issues you have, I am sure you can solve them without the guns. Please, we want us to pick up love and put down the gun, and put down the violence,” he said.
Meantime, the Youth Minister used the opportunity to voice his concern with what he referred to as the overconsumption of alcohol by young people.
“I am a little bit concerned, and many persons on the island are a bit concerned as well, in terms of the consumption or the over consumption of alcohol by many of our young people. We see it especially on weekends.
“There is nothing wrong with having some alcohol but there is something wrong with overdoing and drinking too much…and so I am appealing to our young people, as the Minister of Youth, to try to cut back on the alcohol consumption,” he said.