CARITAS Saint Lucia, a Catholic relief, development and social service organisation, in collaboration with The Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) through the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation and Food for the Poor Inc. have embarked on an Environmental Conservation Initiative targeting 60 Primary and Secondary schools on the island.
The two organizations have made a donation valued at US$230,000.00 (EC$618,286.00) to finance the project.
The inauguration ceremony to mark this landmark event took place last week at the grounds of the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School, under the patronage of Dame PearletteLouisy, Governor General of Saint Lucia.
Additionally, Ambassador Ray Mou, of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Archbishop Robert Rivas, Ms. Kim Mahfood of Food for the Poor Inc, Ms. Li-Yi Cheng, Director of the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation, Minister for Agriculture, Food Production, Fisheries and Rural Development Moses Jn. Baptiste, Minister for Education, Human Resource Development and Labour Dr. Robert Lewis and representatives of the various schools in Districts 5 (Micoud), 6 (Vieux Fort) and 7 (Choiseul) were on hand to witness the launch of this initiative and the planting of 150 trees at the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School.
The donation consists of 10,000 grafted tree plants, which will be planted at 60 primary and secondary schools over the course of one year. In addition, there will be 30 Solar-powered N-Computing computers and 30 electric powered N-Computing computers for the participating schools as well as 15 to 20 greenhouses at selected schools to aid in a feeding programme for those schools.
Fifteen individuals will also benefit from training the provision of all equipment to facilitate bee farming.
Caritas said that the project’s goal is to increase education and nutrition in the schools, promote the benefits of environmental conservation through the planting of fruit trees and establish beekeeping and greenhouse initiatives.