This week, the International Youth Day organizers, have been holding speech competitions at the Honiara City Council conference room.

With the theme "Youth and Climate Change: Time for Action" the winners from the Junior and Senior categories will be expected to do a speech each, during the International Youth Day, on Tuesday the 12th.

Speaking with Solomon Times, the Honiara Town Council, Youth Division representative, Ms. Mary Jionisi, stated that the Planning Board for the International Youth Day decided to hold the speeches before the Youth Day as it is much more convenient.

"We do not want the speech competition to take up too much time, as it is often time consuming. Organizing the speeches now would give us an opportunity to cater for other programmes for the youths," says Ms. Jionisi.

Ms. Tessa Johnston, the Commonwealth Youth Programme, media intern who was also one of the judges complimented on creativity of the competitors.

"They put a lot of energy, time and effort on the climate change issues and although the speeches were done in a short time, the youths have grasped the idea and were very creative with it," says Ms. Johnston.

There were five competitors for each category and the competition was open to all private and public schools from around Honiara. Climate Change was the concentrated topic.