Introducing Richmond Vale Academy, NGO partner for St Vincent and the Grenadines
Richmond Vale Academy (RVA) is dedicated to helping St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), a Caribbean country in the southern part of the Lesser Antilles, prepare for climate change, by delivering resilience and regeneration programmes across food and water sustainability, renewable energy resources, climate change preparation and local community education.
RVA was formed in 2002 to support the communities of SVG, which are among the most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. In 2007, RVA opened its doors to volunteers who contribute to RVA’s role as a catalyst that motivates and mobilizes volunteers and the local community to build resilience.
Since 2017 RVA has been creating climate smart small-scale ecological home gardens in over 200 locations throughout SVG. With 35% of its foodstuff imported, plus an ageing farming population, it is important for local, sustainable, food production to be supported in SVG. Food security became even more important after the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in 2021, which blanketed much of the island in ash, smothering crops. Find out more about RVA’s role in helping SVG rebuild following the eruption here.
Following substantial work on ecological farming, RVA released an online handbook on the subject, titled, “Guide to Ecological Gardening in St. Vincent and the Grenadines”. The book, which is in the public domain, has content from staff and students at RVA who worked together with many small farmers and families in SVG, creating and developing home gardens.The printing of the manual was supported by The University of the West Indies and the University of Exeter as part of our precursor project, ICoFaN.
Together with RVA, the Global CFaH project team is currently planning the community intervention for SVG, which will start in late 2024 and will complement RVA’s existing home garden model. To help us understand the impact of the intervention, we first need to understand the context within which the intervention will be operating; both to get a better understanding of the SVG food system and its stakeholders, and also the local community’s views on nutrition, food production and climate change. This video captures the conversation between Dr Alison Karley and Stina Herberg, as Ali asks some of these exploratory questions and Stina highlights why partnering with research institutions in order to measure and evaluate impact it crucial.
Stina Herberg is Director of Outreach at Richmond Vale Academy. Dr Ali Karley is an agrologist at the James Hutton Institute, based in Scotland.