YEBBLE ISAACS AT CHOGM

On September 26, 2011, Ella Moir and I represented Esperance at the student ministerial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

This is the first time in the history of CHOGM that a Youth Forum was held to debate world issues in their own mock event.

Ella Moir and Yebble Isaacs arriving at the meeting

We were given a country in the Commonwealth to represent and ours was Papua New Guinea. We had to design a poster that portrayed our country as a holiday destination. Our poster was awarded first prize by the chairlady.

Poster designed by Ella and Yebble

We flew to Perth with Mrs Day (the Head of Society and Environment). We stayed at the Hyatt Hotel which was a memorable experience.

Yebble at the Hyatt

On Monday, Ella and I went to the Student CHOGM meeting at the Convention Centre where one hundred and sixteen students gathered from public and private schools from all over WA.

At the meeting we broke off into 3 smaller groups to tackle 3 main issues.

The issues discussed were:
1- Universal primary school education
2- The fight to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
3- The challenges facing the Commonwealth into the future.

Once we had tackled these issues we regrouped to further discuss the topics.

Yebble and Ella flying the flag

At the conclusion of the day the recommendations were handed to his Excellency the governor of Western Australia for him to then present our student findings to official CHOGM 2011 ministers.

We left the Convention Centre knowing a lot more about the Commonwealth and what Australia does to help developing countries, including Papua New Guinea.

Tackling the big issues

At first I felt a little out of my comfort zone but as the day went on my confidence grew and all my hard work paid off.

I am grateful for being given the opportunity to attend this event and was proud to represent Esperance, Esperance Senior high school, the Clontarf Foundation, Follow the Dream, and am very thankful for the help I have received from those programs.

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