Back the Buggies

Last week, the SXM Boogy Foundation unveiled its very first operational buggy vehicle, a hand-built symbol of what practical education, vision, and community support can accomplish when aligned. But more than the mechanics of it, this was a moment charged with potential.

We live in a society that sometimes undervalues the trades, the welders, the auto techs, the mechanics, the fabricators, despite the fact that our daily lives depend on them. We rely on these professions to keep our homes powered, our vehicles moving, and our infrastructure alive. And yet, these vital skills have gone uncelebrated and under-supported.

The SXM Boogy Foundation is trying to shift that narrative. By aiming to build a Practical Mechanic School Program, they would give our youth something more powerful than a textbook: a tangible path to dignity, creativity, and self-sufficiency. These buggies mobile classrooms. They are proof that education doesn't only happen in suits and lecture halls, it happens with oil on your hands and a welding mask on your face.

Prime Minister Mercelina said it best: “It makes no sense to just criticize what governments of the past didn’t do. We are here now, and investment in our youth is very important to me.” He’s right. The time for sidelining technical education is over.

The program teaches far more than mechanics. It teaches resourcefulness by repurposing scrap metal into something functional. It teaches teamwork, discipline, problem-solving, design, electrical wiring, painting, and project management. These skills can lead to jobs, entrepreneurship, and most importantly, hope.

MP Dimar Labega’s advice was equally practical: sell the buggies locally and regionally. Grow the vision. Become sustainable. Let the movement be driven by the same hands that build it.

We as a community have a choice: we can applaud from the sidelines, or we can get behind this movement with real support. Whether it’s through mentorship, sponsorship, partnerships, or even just spreading the word, there’s a role for all of us in helping this school open its doors and change lives.

Government support is essential, but community belief is just as vital. Initiatives like these deserve to be national priorities, because their results will echo for generations.

So let’s help drive it forward.

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