helped 15 youngsters produce winning entries in a Teen Services contest.

Last month Teen Services celebrated its first Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month by sponsoring a poster, poetry, and essay contest.

The purpose of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month was to advocate and support programmes and strategies that prevent teenage pregnancy.

The theme of the contest was "Preventing Teen Pregnancy'' and entry was open to all middle and high school students.

A total of 149 hopeful students entered the competition and the 17 students who won received cash prizes.

Chris Davis, the only male winner of the competition, told The Royal Gazette : "I see all the stuff that my friends are going through so it was easier to write the story.'' The youngest award recipient was 11-year-old Kierzen Caines from St. George's Preparatory.

"Even though I knew that the competition was only for middle and high school students, I wanted to enter anyway,'' she said. Her boldness won her a special recognition award.

Eighteen-year-old Finote Gilbert, a mother of a two-year-old, said she was eager to get the message across of how difficult being a teenage mother is.

She noted her personal experience of being depressed with the father of the baby being absent and the financial drain on her.

Ms Gilbert's advice to all teenagers is to abstain from sexual activity altogether. "I got pregnant the first time I had sex with my baby's daddy,'' she warned.

Teen winners: Pictured are ten of the 17 students that received a prize from Teen Services. Pictured in top row, from left, are Janai Caldwell, Renae Raynor, Chris Davis, Tionee Smith, and Sheryl Nazarett. Pictured in front, from left, are Tiphani Fubler, Kierson Caines, Tylise Tear, Sacha Crockwell, and Sophia Madeiros. Missing are Deanne Weeks, Devone Smith, Antonia Mills, Trkeita Outerbridge, Sophia Lambe, Finote Gilbert, and Mikia Ford.