Hi everyone at RVA and all the Vincentians I worked with. It is been a while, life went on, there is not a single week I am not thinking of St Vincent. The reason I took so long to send a letter is because I have quit using social media for at least 2 years now. I focus myself on other things, but finally I found the courage and the time to send yo...

Pat has been part of the Richmond Vale Academy tree planting process. He has received some assistance from time to time since 2015 to establish his own orchard on his 3.6 acre farm, on which he grows a variety of trees, some of which are for commercial use he sells to vendors on the local market. The fruit trees he grows carry a great commercial va...

Chatoyer Garden's ecological farm is located up Maloney, nestled high up in the lush, verdant mountains of Vermont. Named after Chief Joseph Chatoyer, the National hero of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; honored for his resistance against the colonial forces to protect his beloved homeland Hairouna. Luke is telling how "following in the legacy of J...

“Permaculture is an ethical design science that mimics nature to supply all our human needs, whilst benefiting the environment,” Geof Lawton.   Permaculture is an evolution of consciousness, a journey that improves not only our relationship as humanity, but also guides us to live in harmony with the environment around us. In short to impr...

“The experience was wonderful. I got to learn a lot from the inmates while at the same time they also learnt from me. I gained a lot of respect and trust from them during my time there. They became like family because we interacted while learning at the same time,” RVA Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) graduate Emris Stapleton. “It is said that...

The government of St Vincent and Grenadines has committed itself to ensuring the country is food secure during the difficult period of handling the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country has experienced food security challenges which are also caused by disruptions in international food supply chains. At the time of writing a total of ...

In the July Building weekend 2018 we started the sheep production at RVA for real and now we have developed a system of raising sheep while also growing fruit trees on the same area of nearly two hectares of land – a so-called silvopastoral system (forest + pasture). We are using Allan Savory's grazing method, the holistic land management system, w...

Climate change mitigation is an exigency that must be urgently acted upon if the rate of global warming and its resulting negative effects are to be slowed down.  The threat of climate change on whole livelihoods across the globe can never be overstated, as it is real, being a point of reflection as we enter 2021- calling all of us to action. ...

“What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn’t you dance it? Wouldn’t you act it out? Wouldn’t your every movement tell the story?” While you are reading this text, think about how we could all live a Symbiotic life – a life for all to ...

I was looking for an internship for my school, and opportunities to study abroad. With Richmond Vale's program I got both at once, as well as a chance to explore my interest in sustainable communities I work as an environmental educator, teaching subjects like ecology, wildlife identification, and sustainability. I learned a lot in practice from my...

What did you do before coming here? 7 graduated from high school and worked to save up 1 finished a BA degree 1 a journalist and social worker 3 worked as an economist, cook and waitress. 1 returned from travelling 1 teaching English as a foreign language What made you take the decision to join? That it is about environment and living sustainable T...

1. We Are All Born Free & Equal. We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way. 2. Don’t Discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences. 3. The Right to Life. We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety. 4. No Slavery. Nobody has any right to...

“A little bit of Monica in my life... A little bit of Erica by my side... A little bit of Rita’s all I need...” The song Mambo No. 5 blasted through the blue minibus that took me all the way from the south of St Vincent to Chateaubelair in the far north-east where I’d booked a sustainability tour of Richmond Vale Academy, a non-profit research and ...

Black man be proud! It’s not the colour of your skin That makes you great. It’s not the size of your head Nor your body weight. Black man be proud! There is no difference between Africa, England, Australia or Canada, No difference between Negro blood And Caucasian stud. Black man be proud! They captured you and did enslave, But you were courageous,...

Ethics, by definition, are a set of principles that govern decision making and define the morals of a single individual. They influence how a person differs between right and wrong, their rights and responsibilities and how they live their lives. The code of ethics is a long list of principles that cover a wide range of aspects of everyday life and...

Apparently if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. Or maybe it is like this that if you love what you do enough, you’ll work every single moment of your life at it. I have been lucky enough to have known what I wanted in my life and its work to be and even luckier enough to have had the opportunity to pursue it. To have had...

Over the last couple of decades the fires in the Western US have continued to escalate. Compared to the 1980s and 90s, the amount of area burned has more than doubled. Data before the early 1980s agrees with this upward trend, but it is important to note that regulatory agencies have deemed this data incomplete and of poor quality. With the excepti...

Looking back at 2019 there are some reasons for optimism, but the issue our precious planet is facing has not changed. The biggest ever climate change demonstrations and strikes happened in 2019. This shows us that young people are worried about their future; they are ready to act, but they still don’t have a real model to follow. More and more cou...

After almost ten years of climate action a lot has been done and certainly more is to be done for all to be ready for climate change. Hundreds and Thousands of people are working to make their villages and island nations more Food, Water and Energy secure. People are taking action to meet the Climate Emergency. We can only see the Climate complianc...

Now I know that I want to be careful with what I eat, and really, not putting chemicals on my food is a good place to start. When the RVA students, Ingrida, Ceren and Paulus and their teacher Dani, first came, I was in the house. It was just Jasmin and them out there building the garden. I didn’t want to hear what they had to say. I was stubborn. I...