PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Volunteers from Jamaica and St Lucia will join their counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago for the inaugural Caribbean Volunteer Exchange (CVX) programme this weekend.

The volunteers will be engaged in a number of educational, cultural and other activities over the course of four days.

Coordinator of Volunteer St Lucia, Cyril Saltibus, said the idea of a Caribbean forum for volunteerism emerged out of a meeting of regional volunteer coordinators in Dominica in February this year.

“It was felt that an exchange programme would better address our training needs and foster a better relationship amongst our Caribbean Volunteers. The Volunteer Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (VCTT) took the lead, and St Lucia will be the next hosts in August 2016.

“Through CVX, VCTT intends to establish a two-way exchange of volunteers between Caribbean territories. We believe that it engages two developmental theories to help build the concept of regionalisation through Ting Toomey’s ‘Face Negotiation’ and helps to achieve coordination,” he said.

He said that “one of the questions often asked by young people is: ‘How can we as Caribbean nationals begin to think as regional citizens, if we can’t bring this idea of Caribbean citizenship to life and fully understand each other’s needs and challenges?'”

“CVX has been conceptualised to bring it to life beyond issues

we may read about or understand, through our careers or regular life experiences,” he added.