THE rain did not stop the action as the Ministry of Education/Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GT&T) Children’s Mash Parade took the streets by storm on Saturday. With more than 50 entries for this year’s parade, it was a delight to see our children make their costumes come to life as they depicted current issues in Guyana, with the vibrancy and vigour of youth.

Hundreds of persons braved the rain to have a glimpse of our young Guyanese that came from all the Administrative Regions of the country to celebrate this significant juncture in our culture.
The telephone giant sponsored students of the North Georgetown Secondary School, who were dressed in the signature ‘blue’ and wowed the onlookers with their exceptionally radiant outfits and choreographed moves.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, told this publication that the Children’s Costume Parade has improved over the years. She noted that she is happy that the weather did not deter the participants or the spectators from the parade.
“As always it is an excellent collaboration between the Ministry of Education and GT&T. It has been quite successful and there are notably more people and families coming out to view the parade each year,” she commented.

The minister noted that the contribution of corporate Guyana would assist greatly in lifting the standard of the event.
“Of course, we would encourage the involvement of other private sector entities that would wish to collaborate with the Education Ministry and individual schools to help make such a programme which fosters creativity, talent and skills of young children to be successful. It is always a wonderful way to invest in the future of our nation,” Minister Manickchand said.

Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, noted that he was pleasantly surprised with the high quality of costumes that were displayed. He related also that every year the parade is attracting greater participation as well as spectators, and this he is very happy about.
Minister Anthony also took the opportunity to encourage persons to come out on February 23 (Mash Day) and support the revellers. He alluded to the fact that the parade on Mashramani Day has approximately 30 registered bands with the largest, so far, carrying 1,200 revellers.

Proceedings commenced at the Parade Ground at Carmichael & Middle Streets in Georgetown, and the procession wended its way into Camp Street, then into Lamaha Street and then into Albert Street before entering the National Park, where the costumes were finally judged.

Among those witnessing this event at the National Park were Ministers Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand; officials of the sponsor, GT&T; and Mashramani Committee members and coordinators.
The Children’s Costume Parade is the culmination of the Children’s Mashramani activities that started on February 12 with the dance and masquerade segments that were witnessed by a packed-to-capacity National Cultural Centre (NCC) with eager children, parents and teachers. With participation from all the Regions and Georgetown, the competition bar was set very high, making the judges’ work very hard.
This year’s performance for the Regional Children Mashramani Competition and Costume Parade, brought out our young Guyanese to showcase their talents and saw them putting more efforts into perfecting the different arts.

(By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally)