Tura, Nov 9: The Chief Minister’s Youth Centre (CMYC) at Dadenggre was inaugurated on Tuesday in the presence of the community and school going students of Dadenggre. The opening ceremony also featured two special events for the youth of the community – an art competition and a singing competition.
At the event, Health Minister James Sangma touched upon the significance of the younger demographic in the state, where as much as 73% of the population are youth. “I am happy to have inaugurated the CM’s Youth Centre at Dadenggre,” he said. Further stressing on the need to enhance the functions of these learning spaces, he said, “The CM’s Youth Centre is designed to give the youth of Meghalaya a free, secure and accessible environment where they can develop their ideas and skills. The youth are an important asset and we want to empower them with an opportunity to alternate learning which will enable them to thrive in today’s competitive world.”
The singing competition was unanimously adjudged the crux of the event. Themed “Songs of the 21st century”, the competition saw many competitors, all school going students from 5 schools in the Dadenggre region specially chaperoned by their teachers and school faculty members. Little Flower Higher Secondary School won the competition.
The art competition with the theme “natural colours”, where participants were required to only use naturally available colours and dyes to use in their paintings, was also well lauded by those present. Entries that were submitted to the event at the CMYC were remarkable, with interesting homemade colour dyes ranging from charcoal, turmeric, Sohiong, sunflower petals to lime and other exotic extracts. Sanreyo M Marak won the first prize for his brilliant use of shadows and highlights using only a simple charcoal, in his brilliant portrayal of legendary scientist Albert Einstein.
The CMYC at Dadenggre is the sixth centre in West Garo Hills although it is the first centre to have a grand opening, courtesy of the community people and the students from five schools who had made the two competitive events a memorable one.
CMYC is an alternate co-learning space (codesigned by Sauramandala Foundation and Project DEFY) with a Library and a Nook open to learners of all ages to explore and co-learn as per their interests. Be it baking, carpentry, coding, electronics, sports, arts, music etc; the centre caters to the aspirations of all learners.
