Trinidad and To­ba­go's life, peo­ple and cul­ture were top­ics were high­light­ed by Brazil­ian stu­dents who par­tic­i­pat­ed in an es­say com­pe­ti­tion host­ed by Dr. Hamza Rafeeq, Am­bas­sador of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go to the Fed­er­al Re­pub­lic of Brazil. At a cer­e­mo­ny held on Au­gust 2, the win­ning stu­dents were award­ed book prizes do­nat­ed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion for their out­stand­ing en­tries.

The com­pe­ti­tion was geared at de­vel­op­ing an in­ter­est in Trinidad and To­ba­go among Brazil­ian stu­dents and in­vit­ed them to com­pare both cul­tures. The par­tic­i­pants showed a high lev­el of in­ter­est in re­search­ing the se­lect­ed top­ics and this was re­flect­ed in the high stan­dard of en­tries that were re­ceived ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day from the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs in Port-of-Spain. First place in the com­pe­ti­tion was award­ed to Ma­teus Tor­ress Ave­lar de Li­ma.

He was fol­lowed by Jorge Luiz Quin­til­iano Moura Sil­va who was ad­judged sec­ond, whilst Matheus Doura­do Alves Ribeiro was third. Davi Bis­po de Oliviera Alves placed fourth over­all. In an ef­fort to con­tin­ue the pub­lic diplo­ma­cy out­reach ini­tia­tive, the stu­dents were in­vit­ed to the em­bassy's Open House dur­ing the pe­ri­od Au­gust 28 to 30.

The stu­dents al­so re­ceived open in­vi­ta­tions to vis­it the em­bassy in fu­ture for fur­ther dis­cus­sions and in­for­ma­tion on Trinidad and To­ba­go. The es­say com­pe­ti­tion was one of a se­ries of events host­ed by the T&T em­bassy to com­mem­o­rate the 50th An­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence of Trinidad and To­ba­go and to deep­en re­la­tions with the peo­ple of Brazil.