Pressure Point Project all set tomorrow

The youth sector of the CNMI is expected to throng tomorrow’s Pressure Point Festival at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.

Division of Public Health’s Family Planning Program spearheads the outreach project as part of its effort to educate the CNMI youth on issues related to sex.

Festival youth performers will dazzle the youth with the output of their workshops that include film, music, theater, puppetry, visuals, radio plays, poetry and prose “to promote awareness and prevention of sexual pressures among teenagers in the CNMI.”

Pressure Point Project officer Roxanne Diaz said the project, which is targeted at middle and high school adolescents in the Commonwealth, aims to prevent sexual coercion.

She said the project would use theatrical performance formats such as short film, one-act play, music-oriented, and other performance venues to empower the youth to resist sexual pressure or coercion.

Live performances by renowned CNMI artists such as Amber Mendiola, and 2006 Marianas Idol Juannette Villagomez will add to the merriment tomorrow.

The project, said Diaz, is in collaboration with the Friends of the Arts, Marianas High School Drama Club, Thespians of the Western Pacific Islands, Women’s Affairs Office, and the Saipan Southern High School Manta Ray Band.

The Pressure Point Project will promote awareness and prevention of sexual pressure among local teenagers by directly involving them as event participants in building skills to resist sexual pressure. This means teenagers will share the preventive measures in a creative form with their fellow teenagers, according to project grant proposal author and project officer Leticia Lochaby said.

The project aims to reach at least 5,000 adolescents in the CNMI. The middle or high school with the most representation at the festival will receive a $500 cash prize. There will be Pressure Point Bookmarks and t-shirts to be given away at the venue.

Pressure Point Project was initiated through a $50,000 federal grant the CNMI public health division won last year. The amount will be given across three years. Lochaby, in an earlier interview, said the CNMI won the grant from the Region 9 office, besting other proposals coming from California and the rest of the region.