MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Commonwealth seminar: young Islanders to attend.

Two young Falklands women have been invited to attend a Commonwealth seminar in London next month. The two, Donna Triggs and Justine Goss, were the Falklands representatives at the Commonwealth Day celebrations in March.

Donna says the follow up seminar will involve discussions about a variety of subjects ranging from Commonwealth Human Rights to the work of the political affairs division of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Justine will travel to the seminar from Chichester where she attends college, while Donna will take time from her job in Stanley's Treasury and fly to the UK.

Clerk of Councils, Ms Claudette Anderson, said Donna's interest in attending was so great that she was willingly going to pay her own airfare to do so. However, Councillors were "impressed with her interest and determination to attend" and approved the funding for half of her airfare.

Donna says she feels it is important for the Falklands to be represented at Commonwealth meetings, "...as it gives us a voice within the Commonwealth and so we are in contact with the outside world and not so cut off from everywhere."

The Commonwealth Day celebrations which Donna and Justine attended in March involved a tour of the Houses of Parliament and the House of Commons.

They were addressed by the Honorable Dennis Marshall, QSO, who spoke on, "...the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and what they do for the Commonwealth."

Donna says they also met Mrs. Cheryl Gillian MP and Lord Rupert Redesdale who held a discussion session, "... about what they do and their views and accepted any questions which the participants had to ask.

She continues, "This was followed by the Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey where Her Majesty the Queen came to read her message to the Commonwealth and we observed children of different religions reading out their perspectives to a Commonwealth of Freedom."

The theme to Commonwealth Day was ?Building a Commonwealth of Freedom'.