Trinida­di­ans and Venezue­lans were side by side in Saith Park, Ch­agua­nas, on Sep­tem­ber 25 as they nav­i­gat­ed a triv­ia ques­tions maze and an am­a­teur steel­pan show­down as part of the Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s SDG Amaz­ing Race.

The event was host­ed by three UN agen­cies: the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UN­HCR), the In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Mi­gra­tion (IOM) and the UN Res­i­dent Co­or­di­na­tor’s Of­fice. The or­gan­is­ers aimed to give par­tic­i­pants a mem­o­rable hands-on learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence to demon­strate how or­di­nary peo­ple can pro­mote the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) in their com­mu­ni­ties.

A Venezuelan contestant performs for the judges during the amateur steelpan showdown. Judges from left, Laura Dowrich from Loop TT, Jewel Ali from IOM, and EU Ambassador, His Excellency Peter Cavendish.

There are 17 SDGs that Trinidad and To­ba­go, like all oth­er mem­bers of the UN, must achieve by 2030. The in­au­gur­al round of the UN’s SDG Amaz­ing Race fo­cused on SDG 16: Peace, Jus­tice and Strong In­sti­tu­tions.

SDG 16 pro­motes in­clu­sion, ad­vo­cates for an end to vi­o­lence–in­clud­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing–and cham­pi­ons ac­cess to jus­tice and due process for all. This SDG is at the heart of much of the work that UN­HCR and IOM do with mi­grants, refugees and asy­lum-seek­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Dr Maurice Frank, one of the participants in the SDG Amazing Race, searches through a trivia box to find the correct answer for his question on the SDGs.

Eight teams–five Trinida­di­an teams and three teams of Venezue­lan mi­grants and refugees–com­pet­ed by rac­ing through a maze of triv­ia box­es to find cor­rect an­swers to ques­tions on the SDGs. Teams then sprint­ed in­to the gaze­bo where in­struc­tors from Pro­man Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra were wait­ing to teach par­tic­i­pants how to play the six-line cho­rus of beloved Venezue­lan folk song, Al­ma Llan­era, on the steel­pan. The mu­si­cal chal­lenge was an ex­am­ple of the cul­tur­al fu­sion that takes place when host com­mu­ni­ties em­brace the con­tri­bu­tions of mi­grants and refugees.

Shereen Ma­haraj and Anu-Nandi­ka Bachew were the win­ning duo.

Social media personalities, from left, Stephon Felmine (the Trinidad Alphabet Man), Omkar Lal (Omi868) and Carlos Hernandez (‘The Spanish’) strike a pose after judging the amateur steelpan showdown.

The event was fund­ed in part by the In­clu­sive Cities Com­mu­ni­ties of Sol­i­dar­i­ty project, which is fi­nanced by the Eu­ro­pean Union (EU). Ch­agua­nas is one of six cities in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean that has been se­lect­ed for this project. UN­HCR and IOM are the UN’s im­ple­ment­ing agen­cies for the In­clu­sive Cities project.

A player from Proman Starlift Steel Orchestra teaches a Venezuelan participant the Venezuelan folk song Alma Llanera on the steelpan.

GARY JORDAN

Judges for the race in­clud­ed UN Res­i­dent Co­or­di­na­tor ad in­ter­im (ai), Den­nis Zu­lu, EU Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Pe­ter Cavendish, IOM Head of Of­fice, Jew­el Ali, UN­HCR Head of Na­tion­al Of­fice, Miri­am Aertk­er, Pan Trin­ba­go Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer, Mar­cus Ash, Loop TT Re­gion­al Lifestyle and Cul­ture Man­ag­er, Lau­ra Dowrich, and so­cial me­dia per­son­al­i­ties Stephon Felmine (the Tri­ni Al­pha­bet Man), Omkar Lal aka Omi868, and Car­los Her­nan­dez aka Span­ish.