(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is hosting its first ever Children’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) festival on Friday 22 May from 9:30 a.m. to mark World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD) 2009.

WTISD is observed globally on the 17th of May and the theme for 2009, ‘Protecting Children in Cyberspace’, seeks to raise awareness about creating a secure online environment for children.

The festival is being held at the Guyana International Conference Centre in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Guyana and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with support from a number of private sector companies in Guyana.

The ICT Festival will feature four workshops for children ages 9-14 and one workshop for parents and teachers. These workshops will be facilitated by companies and agencies that are involved in the ICT industry in Guyana. In addition to representatives from UNICEF, the other facilitators will come from the University of Guyana; Brutal Tracks, a music production company; Global Technology, an information technology teaching institute; and BrainStreet Learning, an online learning institute.

The workshops for children are: making/producing a personal video; making/producing music; creating a website (basic); and, news production. The workshop for parents and teachers will cover the topic ‘Educating Children about Online Risks.’

Taking place concurrently with these closed workshops will be an all day exhibition which is open to the general public. In addition to the agencies that are facilitating the workshops, exhibitions will also be mounted by telecommunications companies Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd (GT&T), which is also providing some sponsorship and DIGICEL, the Guyana Government Information Agency, GuyanaNet, Starr Computer and Pressy Enterprise. The CARICOM Secretariat will mount an information booth aimed at educating the students about the regional integration movement.