Crescent District women benefit from craft training Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Twenty women from Crescent District in Spanish Town, St Catherine have benefitted from a training programme designed to promote alternative livelihoods and the sustainable utilization of forest resources.

The women were trained in the production of bamboo and straw items earmarked for the tourism and craft industries.

Dubbed, the Crescent Women Group, the initiative sought to enhance the economic and social development of the women by engaging them in meaningful work as well as replacing activities such as coal burning.

The programme is an initiative of the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), in collaboration with the Forestry Department with funding provided by the European Union (EU) and is aimed at assisting vulnerable women within Crescent District, a part of the Angels community which forms part of the Spanish Town Development Area, where unemployment is a major issue among women.

Speaking on the impact of the project, Norda Dawkins-Lyons, field supervisor from the Social Development Commission who had oversight for the group said the project has positively changed both the group and the wider community.

“The greatest impact of the project has been its ability to lift the morale of the community. As we know, this community is in the Spanish Town Development area which is heavily stigmatized and known for high crime and violence and other illicit activities. So, the introduction of this project provided members within the community an opportunity to do meaningful work rather than be idle or engage in illicit activities,” she said.

Member of the group, Yvonne Elliston says she is grateful for the opportunity to learn a skill.

“This project showed me the importance of bamboo and the many possibilities that surround it, especially in the tourism sector. We saw the rise in demand for bamboo furniture and products so we wanted to create income from it,” she added.

The EU grant allowed the women to procure important equipment such as a stove and pots for boiling the straw, which is part of the preparation process, sewing machines for product decorations and hand tools such as drills, a compressor, hole saws and sanders for making and finishing of bamboo craft items.

The women were able to use the tools to make bamboo products such as cups, bowls, lanterns, flower pots and jewellery while the straw was used to create hats, handbags, purses and mats, among other things.

Other organizations the Forestry Department, the Bureau of Standards, and the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCO), also lent support to the programme.

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