RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a com­mend­able ef­fort to com­bat food in­se­cu­ri­ty with­in their un­der­priv­i­leged neigh­bour­hoods, sev­er­al un­em­ployed youth from Em­ba­cadere, Mara­bel­la and Pleas­antville have ini­ti­at­ed a trans­for­ma­tive com­mu­ni­ty project with the Forestry Di­vi­sion to grow food for them­selves.

The gar­den­ing start­ed at La­dy Hailes Av­enue in San Fer­nan­do, near the Em­ba­cadere apart­ments and along the sea­side.

So far, 30 work­ers have been en­list­ed to cul­ti­vate the crops and dis­trib­ute them to strug­gling fam­i­lies.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia about the ini­tia­tive, Corey Pas­call, the own­er of A-Team En­vi­ron­ment, said it was a no­ble one which should be in­sti­tut­ed in all com­mu­ni­ties across T&T.

“We have two on­go­ing projects, one here in Em­ba­cadere and an­oth­er near the sea­side. We are striv­ing to up­lift the com­mu­ni­ty by en­gag­ing and oc­cu­py­ing the youths con­struc­tive­ly,” Pas­call said.

He said short crops like sweet pep­pers, let­tuce, bhaigan (egg­plant), toma­toes, bo­di (long beans) and patchoi (Chi­nese spinach) were be­ing cul­ti­vat­ed.

“The crops we cul­ti­vate are short-term, and our dis­tri­b­u­tion is en­tire­ly free, ben­e­fit­ing both those in need of sus­te­nance and the fam­i­lies of our work­ers,” Pas­call said.

He thanked the Forestry Di­vi­sion for work­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty to ini­ti­ate the project.

He not­ed that the pro­gramme near the sea­side was al­so un­der­way, pro­vid­ing em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for work­ers. Each work­er is paid every fort­night and al­though the salary is small, the work­ers said they were grate­ful.

Work­er Derek Charles said, “I had been search­ing for em­ploy­ment for six long months. Thanks to this ini­tia­tive, I can now send my chil­dren to school and al­so do some­thing for my­self.”

Charles al­so high­light­ed the grim re­al­i­ties faced by com­mu­ni­ties plagued by un­em­ploy­ment.

“There are peo­ple out of jobs, no food to feed their fam­i­lies, school came up and they have no books for their chil­dren. We al­so have wa­ter prob­lems,” he said.

Charles said he want­ed all com­mu­ni­ties to have a back­yard gar­den.

“What we are do­ing here now is a com­mend­able project. If some­one wants some­thing to cook, they could get some­thing,” he said.

He added, “What we are ac­com­plish­ing here is tru­ly com­mend­able. I hope all com­mu­ni­ties can em­brace and im­ple­ment sim­i­lar back­yard gar­den­ing projects so that any­one in need can find some­thing to put on their ta­ble.”