As Grenada celebrates the vibrant season of Carnival, I take this opportunity to extend warm greetings to all citizens and visitors, especially our young people, who are at the heart of this cultural expression.
Carnival is a time of unity, creativity, and celebration. While I do not personally partake in the festivities, I recognise and appreciate the significance of this season in our national life. I therefore urge all, particularly our youth, to revel responsibly and remain mindful of the choices you make during this time.
Let us commit to a crime-free Carnival. Make wise decisions, avoid confrontations, and look out for one another. I also want to take this moment to speak directly to our young people: Stay away from substance abuse and from random or unsafe sexual activity. Your body is your future. Protect it! Respect yourself and respect those around you.
Additionally, I urge everyone to be attentive to their mental health and emotional well-being. The highs of Carnival can sometimes mask deeper struggles. If you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or simply not yourself, please know that help is available. You are not alone.
As Minister for Youth and Mental Health, I remain committed to creating safe, supportive spaces for all young people to thrive — not just during Carnival, but every day of the year.
Let’s ensure that Carnival 2025 is not only a celebration of our culture, but a time of empowerment, safety, and positive memories.
Wishing you a safe, meaningful, and joyful Carnival!
Hon. Delma Thomas
Minister of Youth and Mental Health
For more information, contact the Ministry of Youth and Sports at (473) 440-6917 or email [email protected].
Ministry of Youth and Sports
Begin with failure of parenting and home support. There is the diminishing importance of marriage and the erosion of the responsible role of parents having control of the children as regards providing guidance, counseling and administering disciplinary measures when they do wrong. Then we have failures of government of Government policies to reach and meaningfully engage the young people. That, and changing societal norms including the negative effect of social media, modern movies and the www. all play a role in producing youth with mindset that feel that they can do stuff with little or no regard of consequences on the lives of others and themselves. The church have their fair share of the blame. They are no longer bible based but instead polite ally correct, catering to the world rather than fulfilling their mission of saving souls from eternal damnation. They choose to remain within the secure confines of their places of worship preaching to the already converted and are mostly silent and uninvolved in making meaningful spiritual impact in the society. They have become just another social club with restraints applied to their members. They have the wrong approach. Besides that the church history has become too riddled with record of corruption and misdemeanor practiced by priests, pastors and church leaders including pedophilia, greed, lust and sexual exploitation and misconduct. These exposed practices have eroded trust in the institution of religion that it no longer stands out as the beacon of hope and refuge providing teaching and guidance to developing minds. It is clear that with parents and authentic church out of the picture the shaping of values of the young minds is mostly left to the world. Thank God for those who have some inborn wisdom from whatever source that they can refrain, sustain and make something worthy and noble of themselves. May God have mercy and bless our young people in these dreadful times.
Young boys and girls must understand to behave properly at all times. Violence is not an example of coming manhood rather it be a road that lead to prison. Read your Bible and choose the narrow path.