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September 2015 |
The workshop was a result of the St. Augustine Campus Department of Chemistry’s ongoing SECCRS initiative, an 18-month project funded by the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP). The project’s overall goal is to empower communities to apply practical knowledge of green technologies to best meet the need of local circumstances. Members of the Heights of Guanapo community were trained to use aquaponics to avoid soil and water contamination from the landfill. Nine of these adults were then mentored to work directly with the children of the ASCC and Guanapo to pass on what they had learned. The UWI Department of Chemistry and Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences Aquatic Health Unit, the Guanapo Community Environmental Development Organisation and the National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST) have a unique partnership with the ASCC to accomplish the project goals. According to workshop facilitator and the SECCRS Project Team Leader, Dr. Leonette Cox, “the big picture is knowledge sharing and building confidence and capacity in community.” Confidence was in full display as the combined teams of children, led by the Guanapo facilitators, performed poems, skits and dance numbers dedicated to aquaponics to a crowd of parents, UWI staff members and others. |