"An organic farmer is the best peacemaker today, because there is more violence, more death, more destruction, more wars, through a violent industrial agricultural system. And to shift away from that into an agriculture of peace is what organic farming is doing." - Vandana Shiva Dear Readers In this blog you will see a lot of beautiful pictures fro...

Expectations vs reality for a student at RVA Before coming here, I had a very vague, unclear idea of what my life would be like for the next 6 months living in St. Vincent as a student at RVA. In fact, I made it a choice not to read the details of the program and other people's posts about their experiences living on the island. I wanted to start t...

Calvert: I am 19 years old living in Layou and I have done a 6 months course at RVA. What we do here is to learn about Global Warming and Climate Change, about how some companies are destroying the planet – especially the fossil fuel companies. I'm in the RVA climate change COMPLIANCE CONFERENCE TEAM and I'm going to say a bit about what I have lea...

The year of 2018 has been extra ordinary in so many ways.  I would like to thank all of you who are reading our blogs and news as you are in one way or another - part of making this world a better place. The past year was a breakthrough in so many ways from new classrooms, home gardens, and program developments, fundraising and improving the o...

At the end of my 6 months program, I decided to come back to RVA as a teacher for the November team. But why this decision and what does it mean to be a teacher in another kind of school? Going home/ traveling for 2 months before coming back to RVA has given me time to reflect on my ambitions, my visions for the future and the way I want to live my...

People coming from Europe have a very unique opportunity to see how the developed world is impacting on developing countries, particularly small island nations like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This can clearly be seen in Saint Vincent because there is such a huge change in the climate and all across the country we can see the devastation that...

Art is a tool that allows us to communicate and express different opinions. During the month of April 2018, our intention was to inspire and strengthen the relation between people and nature. This is what we hoped to achieve while painting a mural in the local Petit Bordel School in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. At the same time, we carried out...

I am currently enrolled in the 18 month "Fighting with the Poor" program at the Richmond Vale Academy. Before coming to the Caribbean, I had worked 8 years for the same company and felt that I wanted a change in my life. The office job was making me unhappy and left me lacking a sense of meaning. I didn't feel like I was contributing anything to th...

The 6 months program is unique in many ways. It provides the students with a practical understanding of topics surrounding sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation. For most of the students, including me, many of these topics would have maybe always remained theoretical concepts. The program is structured in several "periods", each of ...

My name is Ammon Felix and I am from the Richland, WA, U.S.A. I was part of the Fighting Shoulder to Shoulder with the Poor Program at Richmond Vale Academy from April 2016 - November 2017. During this Time I spent 6 months studying the massive forces in the world that keep many people in poverty. I spent 6 months learning the practicalities of wor...