In Focus: Helen’s Daughters Members in St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Women across the Eastern Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia celebrated International Day of Rural Women (October 15) under the leadership of Helen’s Daughters.
The St. Lucia-based non-profit organization has helped women, and farmers, to engage in sustainable agriculture while removing the barriers for their participation in the field. Through capacity-development training, access to funding and high value resources, and networking support, over 35 female farmers and entrepreneurs from St. Vincent and the Grenadines are already better positioned to thrive in the agricultural sector.
We celebrate the inspiring stories of two female farmers and entrepreneurs who represent a community of Vincentian women who are redefining health and healing through farming and feeding their families and our communities through agri-businesses too.
Kemila Hazelwood Bruce
For 13 years, Kemila Hazelwood worked as an Accountant and secretary with a deep passion for farming. She acted on her passion and joined the Women’s Farmers Academy organized by Helen’s Daughters to improve her skills and expand her vision for working in agriculture.
As young as 8 years old, she remembers visiting the mountains with her grandparents in St. Vincent and developing a passion for growing flowers and other fruits and vegetables.
“My passion for farming was further ignited when I met my now deceased dear friend Celina. She lived on the windward end of the island, and I would enjoy visiting her and observed her while she did her farming. She always had beds of chive, other fresh herbs and vegetables in her garden, and she used her fresh vegetables in her cooking. It was this experience that renewed my passion. I went home and started a garden of my own with the support and motivation of my husband who is also my farming buddy”.
Today, Kemila’s farm consists of mostly vegetable and herbs.
“Currently my farm is under construction. I am currently working on having the area cleared in preparation to plant new crops. I envision that my farm will operate in a more purposeful manner. I notice that most farmers plant the same crops at the same time, and I want to do my farming a bit different, based on what I was taught by Helen’s daughters”.
For Kemila, farming is more than producing vegetables and fruits to eat. Farming has improved her mental health.
“Farming has also been very therapeutic to me. I was surprised at how much it relaxed my mind and offered me a time to experience peace”
Kemila intends to turn her farm into a business. Her advice to Vincentian women? “I implore women of agriculture to remember that you can do anything. Never limit yourself”.
Maxine Lewis
Similar to Kemila, Maxine Lewis grew up around farming.
“Growing up in a farming community and living next to my parents motivated me to start farming. I would help with a bit of weeding and assist where I can when I can. As I helped my father take care of his farm, I became curious about owning my own. I wanted to learn how to grow and eat from my own farm and Helen’s Daughters gave me the understanding and in-depth knowledge”.
Through the Women’s Farmers Academy, the senior accounts clerk soon-to-be-part-time farmer is ready to start her own agribusiness.
“I am now equipped for farming thanks to Helen’s Daughters. I now know how to enrich my soil with eggs, shells and grass. I now know that ripe banana skin in water adds nutrients to plants. I learned of uses of earth worms and how to plant a crop with a crop. Most importantly, I now have a network of female farmers that I can count on if I run into any farming difficulties”.
“In the near future I hope to start my kitchen garden and hopefully do some lettuce for sale. In my garden I want to have a little of everything, thyme, mint, chive, peppers and vegetables, and maybe extend eventually”.
