Primary Schools Garifuna Translation Contest 2024

The 15^th Annual Battle of the Drums Primary Schools Garifuna Translation Contest was held on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at Punta Gorda Sporting Auditorium in Punta Gorda Town, Belize.

This contest tests the participants’ ability to translate words, phrases, sentences, and proverbs from standard English to Garifuna.

In this Contest, each school is represented by 2 students. Ten primary schools participated in 2024. The participating schools were as follows: St. Joseph R.C. School from Barranco Village; P.G. Methodist School, St. Peter Claver R.C. School, St. Benedict RC School and Bethel Seventh Day Adventist School from Punta Gorda Town; St. Alphonsus RC School from Seine Bight Village; Richard Quinn Primary School from Georgetown Village; Holy Family RC School from Hopkins Village and Sacred Heart Primary School and Gulisi Community Primary School from Dangriga Town. This year’s contest was extremely competitive, with a 3-way tie for second place and a two-way tie for third place.

2024 Primary School Garifuna Translation Contest Winners winners were as follows:

The prizes awarded are as follows:

Prizes for Participants:                    

1^st Prize                        1 Mini Laptop and 1 bicycle

2^nd Prize                       1 Tablet and $100.00 Savings Account

3^rd Prize                       1 Tablet and $75.00 Savings Account

4^th Prize                       1 Tablet and a $50.00 Savings Account

5^th Prize                       1 Tablet and a $25.00 Savings account

Consolation Prizes      $50.00 Savings account

Celia Martinez Award**        Celia Martinez Plaque

Prizes for Participating Schools:

1. $25.00 for each participant that the school provides for the contest
2. $100.00 to the school of the 1^st place winner
3. $75.00 to the school of the 2^nd place winner
4. $50.00 to the school of the 3^rd place winner

We are thankful to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology for providing one bus to each school to attend the event and to the following persons for providing the Laptops, tablets, and bicycles for the prizes: Dean Pollard, Raju’s Variety Store, Herman Flores, Sandra Flores, Richard Cacho, and Garreth Herbie Clarke.

First-place winners of the Primary Schools’ Garifuna Translation Contest for past years are as follows:

This contest is an initiative under the Battle of the Drums Garifuna Language retrieval strategic objective, and it is also an initiative under our Garifuna Language in Schools program led by the Battle of the Drums and the National Garifuna Council.

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