Youth around The Bahamas are invited to think and talk about the rights of persons with disabilities by participating in the Logo Design Competition of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD).

The Commission’s Logo Design Competition is open to all junior and senior high school students in The Bahamas.

The design competition was launched at the beginning of October and will run through November 10, 2015, with the winning logo announced on December 3, 2015 — which is the United Nation’s International Day for Persons with Disabilities.

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, November 10, 2015.

The student who submits the winning design will have the honour of having his or her logo become the official emblem of the commission, in addition to receiving other prizes. Second- and third-place winners will also receive prizes for their designs.

The NCPD was convened in December 2014, four months after the ‘Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, 2014,’ became law in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

The commission, headed by Chairman DeCosta Bethel, is a statutory body that has the responsibility to oversee the implementation of the Act as well as to monitor and enforce compliance.

“And now that The Bahamas has ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” Bethel says, “It is all the more important for The Bahamas to do all it can to ensure that the rights and dignity of all persons with disabilities are upheld.”

Bethel says that the logo must be the student’s original design and must reflect the mission of the commission, which is protecting the rights, promoting responsibility, ensuring accessibility and advancing equal opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Lester Ferguson, the executive secretary of the Commission’s Secretariat, noted that the competition is one of the ways the commission hopes to encourage youths to think and talk about the rights of persons with disabilities.

Ferguson stated that the commission is engaging in a number of public awareness and education initiatives to help promote the Act.

Derrick Nottage serves on the commission as its vice-chairman. Nottage, a person with a disability (he lost the use of both legs and has been a wheelchair-user since 1985) expressed excitement that the talents and creativity of Bahamian youth will be reflected in the commission’s logo: “We wanted a logo that represents the imagination of the entire Bahamian community, but especially reflects our talented youth — our future.”

Students and their parents who are interested in the competition can request the official rules and application from their schools’ principals or by visiting the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development Head Office at Aventura Plaza on JFK Drive (next to the RBC Royal Bank Complex).