From left: President of COB, Henderson Williams and President of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS), Sir Trevor Carmichael as they sign the MOU, while Director of the BMHS, Alissandra Cummins looks on.
Museum launches new programme
Through partnering with the City of Bridgetown Co-operative Credit Union, the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS) has launched an initiative called Little Heritage Champs.
During the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations, which took place yesterday morning at the BMHS, Klebere Perry, creator of the programme, was happy to reveal that under the Heritage Champions Programme, which launched in 2017, the new primary school initiative was set to begin at the start of the new school year next week at the Wesley Hall Junior Primary School. She hoped that within this first stage of the programme, that they would be able to engage three other primary schools to join this prestigious initiative.
“This initiative works alongside the primary school Social Studies syllabus to encourage awareness of our heritage and to inform students on ways they can assist in preserving and conserving both intangible and tangible heritage,” she said.
“The programme will engage multiple learning styles and utilise creative activities to engage participants on topics such as, what is heritage and the identification of culture, among other topics. It will also seek to encourage the development of life skills, such as leadership, teamwork with the incorporation of COB’s CARES programme, and [the] life skill of goal management.”
As the museum prepared to implement the programme, Perry expressed that it was her hope for the students to enjoy the journey of discovering the field of heritage and culture as they sought to raise awareness for the island’s unique culture among our youth.
She went on to note that they were also looking forward to welcoming back the 16 participants of the Heritage Champions Programme, which is scheduled to resume in October.
President of COB, Henderson Williams, expressed that he saw this new initiative as a compelling and exciting one, as they sought to ensure that all students are able to embrace the knowledge, culture, identity and understanding necessary to help them comprehendd that they have a role to play in maintaining a productive society.