Fif­teen stu­dents of the Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary School grad­u­at­ed from the He­roes Foun­da­tion De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme yes­ter­day.

The three-year youth in­ter­ven­tion ini­tia­tive is a part­ner­ship be­tween ANSA McAL and the He­roes Foun­da­tion with the sup­port of UNICEF aimed at de­vel­op­ing the na­tion’s youth to be­come pos­i­tive and pur­pose-dri­ven cit­i­zens.

Dur­ing the course of the pro­gramme, stu­dents were giv­en ca­reer guid­ance, skills de­vel­op­ment and youth-led projects.

At the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny held at the TATIL build­ing, Mar­aval Road, Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, both par­ents and grad­u­ates were ex­cit­ed to share the many ben­e­fits of the pro­gramme.

One grad­u­ate and stu­dent of Mara­bel­la said, “The He­roes de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme is a three-year jour­ney and the past two years have been ex­cit­ing. Our con­ver­sa­tions in ses­sions helped me and every­one to learn, share ideas in a safe wel­com­ing space every week. Our dis­cus­sions on val­ues stood out to me be­cause I like be­ing able to de­fine my val­ues and who I am as a young leader.”

And one par­ent of a grad­u­ate said, “I have seen my son grow. He’s on the spec­trum. He’s very shy. He’s very re­served but he has grown. He has made friends. He has in­ter­act­ed with peo­ple and He­roes has helped him a lot. He­roes foun­da­tion, I wish that they could be in all schools.”