FAYOLA K J FRASER
Nestled in the heart of Woodbrook is a small but powerful community making waves for women and the local fashion, Carnival and garment production industries.
The Spöol Community, co-founded by designer and entrepreneur, Anya Ayoung-Chee and business leader Hasani Wattley, has merged social innovation, skills development and business to serve economically exposed and at-risk women in Trinidad and Tobago from diverse backgrounds. As an innovation founded to drive independence, Spöol does not only support women’s economic freedom, but also seeks to meaningfully contribute to the garment production and Carnival industries, allowing us to keep our internationally-renowned Carnival product fully local, from design to production.
Spöol offers free world-class training to 100 women in two cohorts, and began operations in April 2023 with an initial cohort of 55, consisting of both local and migrant women. According to Ayoung-Chee, the guiding philosophy of Spöol is to introduce a service that purposefully links business and philanthropy.
In a study published by the London School of Economics and Political Science, it was found that “Trinidad and Tobago has the highest per capita rates of Venezuelan migrants in the world.” Venezuelan women along with their families have to shoulder the burden of navigating the significant challenges of rebuilding a life in a new country, often without adequate tools such as language proficiency, economic stability and family support.
Migrant women suffer from what is known as a “triple jeopardy”, referring to the conditions of their nationality, gender and status as refugees/migrants, which prevent them from socioeconomic advancement in new societies. The issues they face to secure permanent employment include xenophobia, no access to finance, credit or assets and many therefore take the alternative path of entrepreneurial projects to build their economic independence.
Global south-south migration and gender combine with the socioeconomic and cultural context to create structures of oppression in T&T that are difficult for them to escape. However, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has inextricably linked technical and vocational skills’ development to employability and elimination of disparities for women.
Thus, Spöol is well-placed to help women develop necessary skills through training modules for seamstresses, tailors and makers, including pattern-making, fabric lay planning, cutting, stitching, and all other elements of mixed garment production. This training is facilitated by instructors with decades of collective experience.
Spöol’s trainees have access to experts in the fashion, Carnival and manufacturing sectors, including well-known names like Adrian Foster, Alicia Rose, Anya Ayoung-Chee and others, learning valuable skills crucial to meeting the production demands of our local and regional fashion and Carnival industries.
With community at the heart of its operations, Spöol was founded and built to serve women. In partnership with both the Living Water Community (LWC) and The Rape Crisis Society, women who are at-risk of violence, or disadvantaged due to their migrant status or financial standing, can find refuge within the walls of Spöol Community. Women who have at least an 80 per cent attendance record receive a stipend that supports their livelihood. They can use this for transport and daily costs, ensuring that their attendance to the training courses doesn’t render them out of pocket.
Already, five graduates of the first cohort have been placed at on-the-job training sites. The community is not limited to garment production skills development, however, as women have access to business training, support networks, psycho-social support, opportunities for English studies, and business mentorship.
This carefully crafted, well thought out, and sustainably designed programme has been years in the making, and Ayoung-Chee and Wattley have maintained that their core ethos is that “good business should also be about doing good.”
Spöol is not only a humanitarian and philanthropic innovation, but can boost our economy and develop the manufacturing and production sector. In efforts to elevate the standard of garment and Carnival production in T&T, Spöol will foster a quality-driven industry that can also boast of a high standard of efficiency. The founders’ intention is for us as Trinidadians, to “no longer have to look beyond our borders for high-quality, reliable production facilities”.
In the specific case of Carnival, bands outsource the bulk of mass production of costumes, diverting potential jobs and incomes out of T&T in an industry that is indigenous to our country and should be a significant notch in the cradle of our economy.
Carnicycle has partnered with Spöol, to teach students how to create Carnival costumes and reuse old costumes, breathing new life into them. Incorporating sustainability in the carnival industry and harnessing and compounding the existing creativity of costume design has a wide-reaching impact on our industry.
According to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, in the Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting in the Bahamas last week, “for gender equality to become a reality, the responsibility has to be shared across the political sphere, public and private sectors and civil society.” Ayoung-Chee and Wattley have taken up the duty and responsibility that we have as a collective, and made actionable efforts to further the mandate to bring gender parity to all women in our nation.
The offering of the Spöol Community is a step in the right direction, which encompasses women at all intersections of oppression in our society, giving them the tools and opportunities needed for a sustainable future.
Fayola K J Fraser is a professional in the international development arena. She has a BA in International (Middle Eastern) Studies and an MSc in International Relations and Diplomacy from the London School of Economics.