Race-Free Zone campaign launched in Essequibo Stabroek News January 30, 2000 Large numbers of school children attended a rally to launch the Race-Free Zone campaign at Damon Square, Anna Regina last weekend when the Rights of Children (ROC) took their "Holding Onto Friendships" project to the Essequibo Coast. A press release from the ROC on Thursday said that the Race-Free Zone campaign was launched at Anna Regina and at Suddie, while workshops were held at Anna Regina and Abrams Zuil. At the event at Damon Square, local ROC coordinators from the Anna Regina Multilateral and Cotton Field Secondary schools moved the programme through a series of presentations including songs and poems on racial harmony themes. Among those in attendance were Regional Chairman, Ally Baksh and Anna Regina Multilateral school headmaster, Parmeshwar Lall. The launching of the campaign at Suddie took place in the crowded Sunday marketplace. According to the release, 80 young people who attended the workshops at Anna Regina and Abrams Zuil were drawn from schools, clubs and the New Opportunity Corps. The workshops focused on mural paintings featuring the theme "The Colour of Friendship" in preparation for producing mural paintings in Region Two and for an upcoming song and poetry competition titled "Rhymes & Rhythms on Race". A similar session was held at Charity Secondary school for some 200 members of the fourth and fifth forms. The ROC members from Georgetown also held a planning meeting with the coordinators in Region Two on ways to involve the many young people in the campaign activities, the release stated.