Women's Empowerment Project

The project titled "Improving lives and livelihoods for women farmers through technology (Hydroponics)" was funded under the Republic of (China) Taiwan Women's Empowerment Project. It was implemented in collaboration with VincyKlus Inc. The project ran from December 2022 to June 2023. The objectives of the project were to conduct workshops to educate women farmers on Mayreau and Union Island about hydroponic systems and their operation and construction. the project was also tasked with the construction of a small hydroponic system in the community of Mayreau to provide a source of income for women farmers. The project outcomes were as follows 18 participants were trained in hydroponic techniques over a three day period. Participants were then trained in the field for 7 days to build and set up a working system. A hydroponic system was built with an area of 560 square feet, which has a capacity to grow about 528 plants.

As part of the coral reef restoration project, funding was provided by the IAF for a COVID RELIEF grant. the grant was used to facilitate a 4 days workshop with 16 female farmers in the community. Participants were exposed to theoretical and practical knowledge on sustainable soil management, seedling production, composting and plant propagation. All participants were provided with seedlings and 12 members of the farmers group were the recipients of 450gallons water tanks to improve water storage capacity for the purpose of backyard farming.

In August of 2020 over a course of 5 days, 15 educators from the islands of Mayreau and Union were training in the teaching of reading. The project was finances by Funding from the Mustique Charitable Trust and facilitated by Mr. Asif Dover. Teachers from Pre to secondary school were exposed to the sessions. This training was relevant to help us to address issues of reading and literacy.