The Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund hosted a grant signing ceremony on 17th October, 2023 at the SLUNCF Secretariat, Sans Souci, Castries.
The grant award event was made possible by a project that aimed to strengthen grassroots community-based organizations (CBOs) through a capacity development program. It focused on CBOs working in areas that improvedcommunity interventions and investments in the thematic areas of enhancing livelihoods, environmental conservation, and building climate resilience.
In all, five grants with an average value of XCD$40,300 were awarded to local community groups across Saint Lucia. They included:
1. Active Youth Movement- “Ridge to River: Project for Environmental Preservation”;
2. Bèl Ti Jardin Twizin - “Sustainable Backyard Gardening in Soufriere”;
3. Castries East District Disaster Management Committee (CEDDMC)- “Castries East Emergency Response AndMitigation Project)”;
4. Making a Difference-Laborie Chapter - “Sustainable livelihoods for the empowerment of young males”; and
5. Making a Difference-Mon Repos Chapter - “Improving the nutritional eating habits of local students and to teaching them to grow organic vegetables and how to use the vegetables to prepare simple healthy meals”.
Funding for these Grants is made possible through a Partnership Agreement between the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) and the SLUNCF. A total of eighteen (18)CBOs completed the capacity training program which would have made them eligible to apply for a grant. This is the second cohort of local community groups to have formally been awarded grants under this partnership. Today’s signing of grant ceremony brings the tally up to ten (10).
The Chair of the SLUNCF, Mrs Karolin Troubetzkoy presided over the ceremony and reemphasized the organisation’s commitment to supporting sustainability in practice at the community level. She commended the grantees for their perseverance during months of training and grant preparation and urged them to remain resilient in their work.
All grantees will have an average timeframe of 15 months to complete their projects with the support of the SLUNCF project implementing team which includes Mr Felix Finisterre, the project coordinator and Ms Diana Joseph, Programme Officer at the SLUNCF.
About the SLUNCF
The SLUNCF is dedicated to the conservation, restoration, and effective management of Saint Lucia’s biodiversity and natural resource which also includes working towards and building national capacity for the creation of sustainable livelihoods. The SLUNCF was established as not-for-profit incorporation in 2016 and is part of a network of regional conservations trust funds forming a Caribbean region sustainable finance architecture, at the core which is the CBF, and whose main aim is to act as a long-term conservation finance mechanism for nationally determined natural resource conservation priorities.
To find out more information about the SLUNCF and its work, including its grant making program, visit our website at www.sluncf.org.