SFT Week: True transformation begins with you and me
THE Students For Transformation (SFT), the youth outreach arm of the National Transformation Programme (NTP) celebrates the week of October 3 to October 9 as the inaugural SFT week under the group’s theme, “True Transformation Begins with You and Me”.
SFT currently consists of student leaders from 23 secondary and tertiary institutions in the corporate area, St Catherine and St Ann. The programme was formulated in response to the various antisocial and debilitating behaviours that were becoming increasingly pervasive in schools across the island.
The group believes that by living and promoting positive values in our daily activities then the negatives which assail our people each day will be combated.
With just over a year of philanthropic efforts, SFT has already engaged in a myriad of sensitisations, outreach projects and interventions aimed at achieving its mandate for a better and more prosperous Jamaica.
The group has worked assiduously with the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre and other civic groups in sensitising students and the general public to the need for citizens to display proper civic behaviours and etiquette while using the facility.
In late 2009 the group created history by being the first youth group to produce official televised national messages on national holidays along side Jamaica’s political leaders — a feat which the group continues to do on all major public holidays.
In advancing the spirit of service, SFT recently partnered with the Miss Jamaica World Pageant in the completion of several community upliftment projects in the inner-city communities of Hannah Town and Seaview Gardens. The group also spearheaded projects at several homes and places of safety such as the Alpha Boys School, Best Care Children’s Home, and the Mustard Seed Community.
SFT has recently forged a partnership with the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), to champion the need for full participation in the upcoming national census via sensitisation in schools across Jamaica. The group is poised to produce a radio and television show in the coming weeks aimed at promulgating positive values as well as attaining solutions to national issues from youth across Jamaica.
The group kicked off SFT week with a church service at Praise City International Transformation Church last Sunday and will be embarking on various sensitisation campaigns throughout the week. The group has challenged radio stations to play only positive and uplifting music this Friday as a part of a concept the group dubbed as Media Challenge Day.
According to SFT events co-ordinator, Whitney Givans, the songs to be played by participating radio stations were selected by students across the island through a three-month long poll that the group conducted. SFT closes the week this Saturday with Volunteers Day where the group plans to paint a part of the St Anne’s High School.
SFT plans to expand its membership to included institutions from all parishes by the end of this academic year — championing the message that true transformation begins with you and me.