6 Months Climate Activism in the Caribbean

What is RVA about? Well, the answer to this question is different for every person that has been there or is there right now. RVA means something different for each of these people.
What I can tell you is what RVA was for me and how I saw this place during my stay.
RVA is a place for giving and getting great things back. During my short stay for only one month I participated in the climate compliance program and learned so many new things about sustainability, organic farming, permaculture, other problems we as the human race face and most important, I learned new things about myself. To be there feeling this energy of activism and drive was such an experience.

Besides getting input in every kind RVA is about creating your own ideas when it comes to think about problems and finding a way to solve them or even to just start your own little project to make the academy and the whole island better and more sustained.
All these things can’t happen when you don’t have a great team and so many great people around you. This is the heart of RVA, people who work and live there together, helping each other, teaching each other and of course having fun together.

Seeing and experiencing the culture of St. Vincent and its residents was so great. They don’t have much but what they surely have is a warm heart and always a smile on their face.
I guess I don’t have to mention how beautiful St. Vincent and the Grenadines are and how amazing the nature is. How about standing directly into the crater of a volcano or experiencing the underwater world during a dive. This just leaves you with the “wow”-effect.

I could write so much more about this academy but the best thing for you is to go there and find out what RVA is to you! 

I was in Richmond Vale Academy in 2012-2013 in the GAIA Six Month Program, were I learned a lot of thinks. Even English, because when I was there I did not speak English. Now I can say that I speak English more or less. At least enough to communicate wiht English speakers. Maybe you can see a lot of mistakes in this text, but, five years ago I wasn't able to write anything in English.
I knew a lot of pepole around the world in RVA, from Spain, Germany, Russia, Japan, India, Finland, Norway, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela (where I am from), Colombia, Costa Rica, USA, Sweeden, Latvia, England, France, etc.
It was wonderful becuause it enriched my knowledge about different cultures.
In the Climate Change Compliant Conference I learned a lot about global warming and climate change and how to avoid ist effects to live safe, specially near the sea in the poor communities. We study the GAIA Theroy, recycling, biogas production, rain water collection, and most important: how to work close people in the communities, trough The Gaia Kids Club, where we teach children how to plant, grow and harvest in a organic way, developing micro projects in the communities, like, for example, rain water colletion, teaching in the schools, also sharing culture activities with children and adults as well.
For me it was very special to learn about organic farming. In Richmond Vale Academy. I leard how to plant, also how to make organic fertilizer and organic pesticide and how to improve our own production.
Every saturday we had culture night and it was very funny, because the activites were organized by ourselves. Every saturday the responsible group choose the matter to develop. That was a kind of weekly celebration.
We worked as a team every day. We made our best effort to reach or goals. We study a lot. I think this is a great opportunity to meet people, to learn and to share experience with people from all over the world.

I had a great time, I looked beyond the little problems and I focused in what I saw - The students , teachers of all ages and with various paths in life, they have one common goal : changing the world into a better place. Most of what we learn won't be in courses or books or illuminated heads but we will learn through our experience together. Here is shown the importance of the common meeting , everyone’s involvement is very important ,because we run this school together, so I felt very delighted with the common meeting , a truly democratic environment, where everyone can talk about what they feel - this is for me a wonderful characteristic of the school . I chose RVA to learn about Permaculture , of course RVA isn't a university , but it gave me the knowledge to implement a project in a poorer place in Africa or India and now I know I can do it. I want to continue to learn from other people and culture. I know I'm not going to change the world but I know that, together, we will be able to make a difference . I want to love and embrace the whole world.
Thank you RVA

I arrived one or two weeks later after the program of the 1 Month Climate Activist Team of July finished and I was a little bit scared what will be my program without having a team...
But to be honest ? From the first day I've met people from all over the world- I felt very welcomed and being part of a multicultrual commmunity.
I came to RVA to learn more about Climate Change and how to change things in my own life to live sustainable. I thought it will be more like a real school or academy where you have to make researches, hold every second day a presentation and go daily to classes. But it wasn't like this.
There were some classes or a few presentations held by teachers or students who stayed longer at RVA but it was very interesting and informative. Nevertheless it was not only the hypothetical stuff you have learned, it was also connected to the practical. Two or three times a week we had to clean, harvest in the garden or help to local people.
I had the privelege to be a single student of my smart, funny and open-minded teacher! At the beginning I had to continue with some program of the 1 Month- Climate Activist Team of July but because there was just my teacher and me, we were allowed to choose a project which we were interested in.
We tried to inform the local people of a superhealthy plant called "Moringa" while we went through the streets and promote this plant or went to local families, talked and cooked with them. It was a very good experience to come in contact with some locals and see that these people even without having material things -which we would usually have- are happy!
After this part of the program we decided to make a project about "Whaleing and fishing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines". We went for our investigation to Bequia, a little and beautiful island of the Grenadines, and made some researches to our topic. We've met plenty of friendly and open-minded people who were helping and supporting us. Even one of the workers at RVA was so friendly to take us three times to go fishing with him and gave us a lot of information according to our project.
Concluding I'd like to say even I stayed just for 1 month I had a really good time at RVA. Even if I was scared at the beginning not to have a team, at the end I was kind of happy that I had the chance to make these experiences because I know with a team of many students this was not possible. Nevertheless I enjoyed the beautiful people from different countries with whom you share good moments (after or by working). I appreciate my stay at RVA because now I know how I can deal with the implications for myself and how to convince others.

I will summarize three main reasons at the base of my negative experience at Richmond Vale Academy (RVA): organization, knowledge and safety.
1. Organization: the 90% of your time at RVA will be spent in the activities necessary to run the school. These activities are: cleaning the different part of the school (kitchen, main hall, garden), food production ,harvesting food, garden farming and building week-day-weekend (the length depend on what it is planned). For the cleaning you will spend 1h every day plus once a week an entire morning as the food production. All these activities are time consuming because you will receive contrasting instructions on how you have to do them or no instruction at all.
Other activities as beach and river clean up are not organized: you are not aware why you are doing that, if it is a part of a bigger program and again how you have to do the work (ex. during the first beach clean up we collected all kind of trash: plastic, metal, glass, etc.; only in the end we were told that we were supposed to pick up only plastic).
2. Knowledge: the program promised '' Intensive studies about sustainability, organic farming, the importance of self-sufficiency in impoverished communities, the risks/effects of Global Warming and Climate Change in the Caribbean, etc. Through research, creation and implementation of projects in nearby villages, promotion, and by example, students will work to prepare the people of the Caribbean for the dangers of Global Warming''. In order to accomplish successfully these goals a teacher (during the program you are considered a student attending a school) must have a depth understanding of the topics that he/she supposed to give lectures about. In reality, no one of the teachers have a background on environmental science or on other subjects related to Global Warming and Climate Change. In one month I attended: 2 lectures (1 h) about Permaculture (I read the same information in Wikipedia); 1 lecture ( 1 h) about food security and health (the information we received were poor and extremely confused); 1 lecture about renewable resources (we did a quiz-discussion about the different renewable resources), again information were poor and incorrect (ex. in general in a shallow geothermal system you don`t drill a borehole, this is not true); 1 workshop about Global Warming and Climate Change (again information were poor and confusing (ex. we were talking about water management and nobody, teacher included, was aware about the hydrological cycle) . Only 2 guest lectures were informative and interesting and both were hold by academic experts about biodiversity and soil erosion in St Vincent and Grenadines. Also, I was extremely surprised about how the school`s teachers express their completely refusal of an academic education and mistrust on the expertise opinion about environmental topics.
3. Safety: I felt that the area where the school is located is not safe: we experienced an episode of steal money and an attempted rape.
The basic hygiene standard are not present in the kitchen, where an incredible amount of flies and cockroaches were present.
Also, during the beach cleanup the safety of the participants was not considered: we had not enough gloves for everyone and no instructions were provided about how to manage the waste. In the beaches as well in the rivers you can find everything from plastic to glass, even rusty metal objects and common trash bags and we experienced an high numbers of children ready to help collecting these kind of waste exposing them to diseases.

When I first arrived at Richmond Vale, one of my first tasks was to accompany another member of the group into the food forest. It was still early, and everything was still damp from dew. We found a single mango in one of the trees, a really big one and late in the season, so it was really lucky for us. This was my first experience living in a sustainable community, and though it was soon followed by many others at RVA, that first morning stayed with me throughout my time on St. Vincent.

I know there are special programs and studies for personal development. But nothing can compare with experience personal development- that is true knowledge. This is what happens to you when you join a program at RVA. You learn so much about the world, the earth and what we are doing with it. We really are parasites on Mother earth in today's society. You learn a lot of things that makes you sad and angry, but you also learn that there is hope! There is a way, and you are going that way in this program where you are actually out in the communities making actions on what you believe in! You also learn how to teach others in a simple way so that they also can start doing something to save our world.

You live like you learn, along with your morals and in a nature that you thought only existed in books with photshoped pics. All people who comes to RVA are good hearted people, so prepare to make lifelong new friendships along with the challenges that comes with working in a team.

There is no way you are the same person when you first enter Richmond Vale Academy as when you leave.
You are the better you.

Do it for the world. Do it for you!!

I have learned so much about what negative impact we are making on our climate and it is even the smallest things that contribute. Saint Vincent is a country, among so many that needs to be taught about how we can contribute, however big or small in taking action as a climate activist. One of my highlights was visiting a number of schools and giving presentations about GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Many products are exported and imported worldwide, but yet the Vincentians have the potential to produce food on their own doorstep - eat organic, healthy food, reduce carbon emissions and support their own economy. Many of us from here and across the world need to rethink how we shop, use energy or other things that make a difference to our planet, good or bad. This experience has changed my point of view on our climate and planet. The fossil fuels, for example won't last forever, as many of us think and if we carry on doing this, we are destroying our home planet more and more. People from all walks of life can join this programme, whether they are an 18 year old student or a middle aged lawyer - it doesn't matter. What does matter is Earth is our home and we all need to take care of it because we are part of this biodiversity, therefore this is why we are alive today.