Green Thumb - 15
Green Thumb - 15
Transcript
00:00 Green Thumb Tuesdays is brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.
00:04 Growing stronger together.
00:05 For the last two decades, Corina Jardine Scott and her team have been endeavouring
00:14 in the holistic development of children through her NGO, Kind.
00:18 But as the pandemic promises to worsen ongoing food security and nutrition crisis,
00:24 Scott is extending kindness through agriculture to those most in need.
00:30 We recognise that a lot of the persons who are coming were unemployed,
00:36 and they were trying to figure out what is their next step.
00:39 So we did a data retrieval programme.
00:42 And this allowed us to engage with families and individuals in our fence line
00:47 community mostly, which is Laventille, Mova, Beetham, Sealots, Aranguas,
00:52 Baratari, etc, East Port of Spain.
00:54 And a lot of the information that came back to us was that people didn't know how to plant.
00:59 They didn't know how to look after themselves.
01:01 Out of the complex links between poverty, food insecurity and diet,
01:05 the NGO launched its Plant Watch Eat initiative.
01:09 The aim? To equip thousands in fence line communities with the know-how to never go hungry.
01:15 That initiative allowed us to engage first with 100 families
01:19 throughout the East Port of Spain area.
01:23 And we completed our first cohort where we got 87 families
01:28 who participated throughout the entire cohort.
01:30 And they all had were able to produce items.
01:34 They were able to plant items and get plants and get some produce from it.
01:39 We're now in the second cohort, and this cohort is now going to be going into
01:44 three schools as well, where we're going to be doing a community garden.
01:49 And the families whose children are in these schools
01:53 are also going to be doing their home vegetable gardens.
01:57 Scott says there were many branches of benefits from the program.
02:01 We have beautiful weather all year round.
02:03 We don't have snow to be shoveled and low temperatures where you can't plant items,
02:08 as well as our Caribbean people are really kind, naturally kind people.
02:15 So sharing seeds and sharing plants and pieces or sharing produce comes very easily to us.
02:21 So that aspect of it, it shows a lot of of empathy and support for each other.
02:29 Kang's leader believes that nature holds the key to unlocking the answers
02:33 for many problems arising out of the pandemic, and food
02:37 sustainability must now take root in all activities going forward.
02:43 Jesse Ram, the OCNC 3 News.
02:45 Green Thumb Tuesdays was brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.
02:50 Growing stronger together.
02:52 Development Bank. Growing stronger together.