Thank you to those 50 people who chose to get out of their beds on a Sunday morning to come and take a walk through Welchman Hall Gully and listen to some great presentations soon after to celebrate Earth Day 2012! This coupled with the 75 or 80 people who came out in the evening time to see the movie One Day On Earth at Southern Palms Beach Club and Resort Hotel made Earth Day 2012 a great day to celebrate and appreciate this great planet!

Some of the pics of the morning event:

Some wonderful thank yous:

For the Morning Event:

The US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and Ms Rebecca Ross – their Public Affairs Officer for their funding of the morning’s event

Debra Brancker of Welchman Hall Gully who provided the use of the gully free of charge to the participants in the mornings activities

Dr Adrian Cashman for his contribution of a very interesting and educational presentation on the importance of water and gullies in Barbados

Ms Lorraine Ciarallo for her presentation on permaculture principles

Ms Lani Edghill for preparing a great presentation on Green Building and for her assistance in organising the day

Ms Cecilia Stallard for assisting with the registrations for the mornings event.

To the contributors of our Public Sentiment Document which was delivered to Dr The Honourable Denis Lowe – Minister of Environment And Drainage on April 25 2012!

And for the evening time:

Corrie Scott for highlighting the global release of the film One Day on Earth and that Barbados needed to be part of it!

Ms Britta Pollard and Jenni Wilson of the Southern Palms Beach Club and Hotel Resort for the kind use of their Conference Room free of charge for the event

And of course for both events, all of you who participated and chose to appreciate Earth Day 2012! It would have been nothing without you!

Thanks lastly to Heather-lynn Evanson for her stories in the Nation following the Monday article shown here. Heather-lynns coverage appeared in The Nation on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank you Heather-lynn for your continued support of the FCT!

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By Lani Edghill

The FCT’s Little Edgehill site, is receiving a garden transformation and it started on April 7, 2012 with the help of a great bunch of volunteers! But the work has just begun!

Recently, the FCT, has had the pleasure of working with Ms. Lorraine Ciarallo of Canada. Lorraine, is a Permaculture Designer, Consultant & Educator and obtained her Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) in 2009 and in December 2011, completed the Permaculture Internship Program at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. www.permaculture.org.au

This intensive program followed Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture A Designers’ Manual” which covered Concept Themes in Design, Trees and Their Energy Transactions, Water, Soils, The Humid Tropics and has trained Lorraine, to build garden design systems that are full proof.

Lorraine, will be volunteering her time at the Hudson Permaculture Garden for the next month and sharing permaculture knowledge with us. As we said, we began on April 7th with a truly inspiring morning. Lorraine, explained the garden design and how to improve it, provided productive tips on how to improve the ecological soil biology in a garden, and explained how to grow highly dense nutritious food for you and your family in a short presentation after the work was done.

Permaculture, was founded by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the early 1970’s. Geoff Lawton, Lorraine’s teacher, is the founder and managing director of PRI Australia and a direct student of Mr. Mollison. In the video link below, Geoff, demonstrates his teaching expertise by implementing the use of permaculture ethics and principals on the most arid land of Jordan. “Greening The Desert” Parts 1 and 2 can be viewed here http://permaculture.org.au/2007/03/01/greening-the-desert-now-on-youtube/

The Research Institute has thousands of qualified members www.globalpermaculture.org and they are encouraged to venture out globally and set up PRI demonstration sites so that people of all nations have an example of how to design for success no matter the land size and no matter the climatic condition. Permaculture ethics and principals provide a means and an opportunity to learn about simple and proven techniques that rejuvenate the land. Yes, it’s about growing nutritious food, but it’s also, about growing soil too! Once a system is put into place, little input is required, yet maximum output is provided.

We will be calling for more volunteers to help with this great project so please let us know if you have an ongoing interest in this initiative so we can keep you updated! We were to have a day on April 21 but we are also celebrating Earth Day on the Sunday where Lorraine will provide a presentation to all present to you can register your interest for the next morning in the garden there.

We need your help to get the FCT garden back up and running and your help to create a demonstration site for local Barbadians to experience and learn from. For more information please contact Lani at 836-6189.

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On Wednesday February 29, Principal of The Combermere School, Mr Vere Parris, proudly announced the school’s latest infrastructure addition open for business! With the help of the Project Coordinator for the CoRe NETWORK Project, Mrs Vicky Merrick, and the FCT’s trusty carpenter Victor, the school was able to launch their own centre for use by current and past students, teachers and the parents of the school community.

CoRe NETWORK is a project focused on the drawing together of a common interest within an existing community to reduce their impact on the country’s only Municipal Solid Waste landfill at Mangrove Pond. Co is Community and Re is Recycling – Community Recycling NETWORK – a network of communities across Barbados who have recognised they can make a difference!

Combermere is in fact the last school to receive a CoRe NETWORK centre under this phase of the project which has been funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation. Project Coordinator, Vicky Merrick spoke of the addition of Combermere to the programme:- “Combermere is a great community oriented school with very active Old Scholars who have also been invited to contribute to the CoRe NETWORK Centre. It is a great opportunity for one of the leading Secondary Schools in this country to educate a generation of young people, their parents and family members, teachers and related community members of the benefits of recycling and how recycling can indeed contribute to a better environment.”

The CoRe NETWORK Project is one that has made visual impacts to the amount of waste that has been diverted from the landfill. Thanks to the driving enthusiasm of Vicky Merrick, this project has found sound partners in the communities who want to make this project a success in their own right which adds to the collective power of such a movement.

We look forward to more interest from local and international partners to expand this project to greater numbers and a greater geographical spread.

Thanks to Barbados Today for their coverage as seen in this pdf – Barbados Today March 1 2012

Thanks to The Coca Cola Foundation for their support of this valuable initiative!

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The Peter Moores Barbados Trust is known for its support of educational programmes with a particular relevance to youth. On February 20, 2012, the Trust confirmed its approval of a proposal to extend the CoRe NETWORK Programme to include 3 more schools!

After considering our application and highlighting some of the benefits and lessons of these past two years since our pilot project and the implementation of the full year of initiatives, the Trust saw the benefits of learning to schools and of course to our environment.

More information on the application process for schools will be coming at the beginning of April 2012. The FCT looks to partner with more schools who express a sincere interest in making what will be a long term investment in reducing the amount of waste their community sends to the landfill, learning of the impacts of waste, and earning the school a little income.

Thank you to the Peter Moores Barbados Trust for their support of this extension to the CoRe NETWORK initiative! More information on the work of the Peter Moores Foundation and the Barbados Trust can be found here: http://www.pmf.org.uk/pag_barb.php

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The week of February 13 saw two presentations provided by members of the FCT team – one at Harrison College by FCT Administrative Director, Ms Nicole Garofano and the other at Deighton Griffith by CoRe NETWORK Programme Assistant,  Ms Ayana Moosa.

The week started with a presentation to the full school assembly of Harrison College at the invitation of students Mr Matthew Kodilinye and Mr Angelo Jones as a link to their recently launched project ‘Green School – Clean School’. This invitation was supported by teacher, Mr Carl Toppin, who collectively attended the CoRe NETWORK Workshop on January 27 held at the Girl Guides Association Headquarters. Principal, Mr Chrichlow, was not sure of what to expect with the presentation with the requested focus on littering within the school, but was pleased with the outcome.

Ms Nicole Garofano, presented a closed circle of how litter can impact our lives without even knowing it. She explained the potential life cycle of a peanut packet or wrapper dropped in the grounds of the school…

“Picture this: A peanut packet that you drop here in the school grounds.

The peanut packet is made from chemicals and some fossil fuel based oils, as all plastics are.

Environmental Health problem No 1: Its unsightly to leave trash around.

The packet gets picked up by the wind and blown through the school – now a man made part of nature.

It settles in a small puddle next to a tree and for the first day or two is happily collecting little pockets of rain drops where mosquitoes take up residency and breed.

And so the loop is closed!”

Ms Garofano spoke to the belief of some students, and adults for that matter, that to litter is to create a job for someone in the society – in this case the groundspeople for the school.

“Your one peanut packet included above has contributed to the illness of at least a dozen people, possibly killed one or two from hemorrhagic dengue fever; spent your parents tax dollars on cleaning out the banks of the Constitution River to help clean out your peanut packet, which still got missed; affected the fish stocks available (in limited supplies at this time), with chemically affected waste and endangered your own cells and prospects for a healthy life by closing the loop with the fish that is eaten. THIS IS BIGGER THAN SOMEONES JOB – AND THE JOB THAT WE SAID IT IS NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONSIDER!”

Mr Chrichlow explained that there are many other tasks that the school can benefit from by allocating other roles to these valuable team members other than picking up litter that students drop in the school. He applauded the presentation and placed hope that such an explanation could assist the students in their respect for the school grounds.

Ayana’s presentation was invited by teacher at Deighton Griffith, Ms Zondeen Alleyne who also attended the CoRe NETWORK Workshop on January 27. The school has had a small scale recycling project for the last 2 years or so, but now, charged with the information received at the workshop, Ms Alleyne was keen to expand the operation. Ayana presented to the students on the basics of Community Recycling – the CoRe NETWORK way. The students were appreciative of the information received, which also included a presentation by Mr David Bynoe of the Ministry of Agriculture. We look forward to assisting the Deighton Griffith School in their recycling ambitions.

School presentations are provided at the invitation of the school and are subject to the availability of FCT team members. Should you wish to explore the option of hosting a presentation at your school or club, please contact the FCT at info@futurecentretrust.org or by calling the office at 625 2020.

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After just over a year, the CoRe NETWORK Coca-Cola Foundation funding phase for 2011 is complete.

This project was conceptualized as the Future Centre Trust reviewed it strategies for public education and outreach in Barbados during 2009/2010.
It was due to the successful implementation of a pilot project during the period September – December 2009 with thanks to funding from the TD Bank Financial Group and assistance provided by students from McGill University, Canada who were completing their Barbados Field Studies Semester at the Bellairs Research Institute, that the FCT was able to move forward and look to expand the concepts of Community Recycling to the wider community.

Final reports were lodged on February 15, 2012, for the close of this funding phase which provided some great results as below.

Summary of Implementation Results

The following is a snapshot of the projected outcomes

1. Number of recycling points

• The number of recycling points initiated came to a total of nine (9) in this funding phase;
• These contained a mix of actual recycling collection ‘centres’ and collection ‘communities’, depending on the location. We had two (2) CoRe ‘Communities’ and seven (7) CoRe ‘Centres’ constructed during the period.

2. Reduction of waste headed to the landfill

• As per the table below, we had a total of 43277 items diverted from the landfill.

Table 3 – Data Log of Collections

3. Education programme initiated and completed

• As per the table below, the numbers of meetings held sits at 28 with the total number of attendees represented being 4007 plus exposure to the population via print and television media.

In addition to this, the workshop was able to draw another sixty persons over the two days to take the information back to their communities.

Table 4 – Summary of Table 1

This project phase provided an excellent opportunity for the communities to become active in the effective management of their household waste. It has provided an excellent learning platform for the children both of the school communities, and within the CoRe Communities where children live, but attend other schools not directly associated with the CoRe Programme.

We have confirmed that education and assistance to communities is critical from the outset to assist their ability to self manage their projects moving forward. Whether recycling or any other community based project, education must indeed come first to ensure success.

We have received call for an extension of this initiative, with particular interest for more workshops and the capacity to manage small funds to assist communities in their set up and education. We look forward to securing further partnership funding in the near future to continue this momentum of work and achievements that have been so well received.

The Coca-Cola Foundation has provided the monetary assistance for this project and without it we could not have learned so much, helped so many people understand the principles of recycling,  the process in the Barbadian context and how they can become involved. We now have resources which were not available before the process and we are so very grateful for their belief in our project and that of our supporters to see such a wonderful community based response. Sincerest gratitude to you, The Coca-Cola Foundation!

We look forward to new partnerships with existing and/or new funders to the further expansion of waste management education and to assist more communities in their efforts to include recycling into their daily life.

If you would like more information on this programme area of the FCT from a community or for potential partnership opportunities, please contact Mrs Vicky Merrick by email at recycling@futurecentretrust.org or on her cell at 836 6186 or at the Resource Centre of the FCT on 625 2020.

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