CATEGORY:NATION BUILDING
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By Trevor Thwaites (Inside Grenada correspondent)


ST.GEORGE, Grenada - After two- and- a-half decades, the Agency for Rural Transformation (ART) has become a Household name in the country, with the many social and economic development programmes it has organized, positively impacting on the rural communities across the country. Two recent activities- a cricket-coaching programme for 160 youngsters’ boys and girls from eight villages and a Drum making and Drum Play Workshop for 20 participants in three communities in St Andrew are among its latest endeavours.

“We think that we are impacting positively and are making a difference”, General Secretary of ART, Sandra Ferguson. “Finance is crucial to get all the things we have been doing accomplished. It is a major challenge but there have been a lot of good citizens out there. We have been able to do a lot of good because of the cooperation we have had with other stakeholders, drawing on their resources to make things happen”, Ferguson remarked.

A Youth Development Programme and a Basic Life Skills Initiative are two of the prominent undertakings of the Agency for Rural Transformation, which seeks to engage and empower residents in the rural communities to meet some of the challenges of the 21st Century. The Agency, according to Ferguson, has been engaged in several programmes including a community health drive and the promotion of income generating activities.

She says much has been accomplished in the former, which has been promoting the use of healthy local foods in schools and communities and health programmes through serious education, which has been encouraging nationals to take responsibility for their health. “This is important because many of the diseases that cause death are really chronic-lifestyle diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension which can be prevented.”


Ferguson refers to ART’s efforts at Entrepreneurial Development and the spirit of enterprise as heartening. “One of our most successful1 ventures is our involvement in Bee-keeping. We think that we have helped to take it to the highest level at the show in England, where Grenada’s exhibits won awards. We are very involved in the development of community groups and community leaders. It is a challenge, but we will definitely be around for another 25 years.” Ferguson remarked.