A Better World Volume 1

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up to the HeForShe campaign by inviting senior ranks in

every section (Coast Guard, Air Guard, the Army and the

Voluntary Guards) to sign up, thereby demonstrating their

commitment to gender equality.

The Mango Festival is NRWPTT’s flagship project. The

Paramin Women’s Group, a foundation member, began as a

small herb farmers’ group in a semi-rural/semi-urban commu-

nity of family members with capacity training, a revolving

loan, product development and food safety. The group now

supplies two supermarkets with its bottled green seasoning

and pepper sauce, and participates in many green markets

throughout the twin-island state.

The group’s members accepted the challenge to produce

items made from mangoes, to take the Mango Festival

from 2009 to the present with food and non-food items.

The range of products includes mango paper jewellery;

handcrafted paper cards; handcrafted soaps, body creams,

oils and soaks; wine from mangoes and other local fruits;

preserves and sweet and savoury condiments from the

mango such as amchar, pepper sauces and mango cheese;

cakes and breads, among many others such as punch-a-

crème (local fruits), a favourite at Christmas time. The

women also provide spa and beauty treatments such as

mango manicures; catering using all locally grown fruits

and vegetables; seasonings from their herb gardens; and

even plant rentals and landscaping. The women continue to

empower themselves through training in product develop-

ment and food safety, labelling, packaging, record keeping

and financial management.

In an effort to take advantage of the New Urban Agenda

in the United Nations Habitat 3 preparation, NRWPTT

linked rural and urban communities in the Country

Farmhouse Bread project. In doing so, it took the oppor-

tunity to remind everyone that the country, like most of

the developing world, is faced with enormous challenges

including resource scarcity, climate change, food secu-

rity and unemployment among others. As a contribution

to the solution, NRWPTT and the Women’s Action for

Development project hosted an event themed ‘Planting

Food and Forest’ in Trinidad and Tobago, in the scenic area

of Cumana, Toco on 5 June 2016. This event also coincided

with the United Nations World Environment Day.

The feature activity of the event highlighted IICA’s assis-

tance to NRWPTT through the 10th European Development

Fund Intra-ACP Agriculture Policy Programme (APP)

Caribbean Action. The APP project supports access to small-

scale equipment for NRWPTT, for the production of breads

and other value-added products from roots crops.

Other activities included members of the Port of Spain

Sister City United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Youth Club and the

Toco Foundation UNESCO Youth Club in the Youth Tree

Planting Ceremony; displays of roots and tubers; breadfruit

and mango breads made by network members in the conven-

tional oven and the ‘Yesteryear Old time Traditional Oven’, as

well as demonstrations and displays of members’ items for the

tourism component of the project.

Empowerment of women is a powerful driver of progress

in the Sustainable Development Goals. We have therefore

used our mission of enhancing the social and economic

development of rural women by taking the bold step of

challenging members to develop innovative products

using the resources in their environment, to run their own

community based micro-enterprise or supply their wider

national, regional and international clientele boasting an

impressive variety of products and services. Education

and training plays a critical role in our development. We

continue to strive and look for avenues where members’

lives and, by extension, their families and communities can

be empowered.

Preserves, condiments, cakes and breads are among the products on offer at

the Mango Festival

Country Farmhouse Bread is a project linked to rural and urban communities

through Habitat 3

Image: NRWPTT

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