6 Months Climate Activism in the Caribbean

Dont forget to bring one or two pairs of gloves, sunscreen and mosquito spray. Some people were affected by them, but not me. I never used it. And bring a good camera if you can, because you will be surrounded by amazing nature.
You should be okay with living in a bedroom with another person and also bring enough idealism to see the work as a passion and not as.. you know work ^^.

After you have been trained in the skills you need for the work at the campus, your week will look normally this way. From Monday to Saturday your day starts with breakfast at 07:00. What happens next depends on whether it is a practical or theoratical program. You will either work in your responsibility area (garden, kitchen, promotion, maintenance,etc.) or do other practical work, if needed. If it is a theory day, you will be part of a morning class, in which a teacher informs you about different topics concerning climate change.
Lunch is at 12:00 and Dinner at 6:00pm. Normally you will be finished with your work around 4 or 5pm and can go to the beach or call home before dinner. After dinner we used to play games or went for a night bath in the sea. Sunday is the day, that you can use however you want. Go to Kingstown, hike the Vulcano or go diving! On sundays breakfast is at 09:00.

My biggest fear was that I could not stand the hot climate, because I obviously never worked in a garden in the tropics. I told myself I just had to try and asked my friend about that. He told me, that everybody had adapted after a few weeks and that was also true for me. After I got tanned, I always enjoyed the sun! There are also some cloudy and rainy days, so you should really not share my concern.

Living at the Campus of Richmond Vale Academy is a wonderful experience. Working and living with the same around 50 people the whole day creates deep friendships, that you seldom find at normal schools. Due to the option to choose your responsibility area, you will work with people, that share your interests and enjoy every minute. At RVA everything is selfmade. Nobody, except the local workers, that support the students is really educated in the skills. You learn everything by doing it and that is the secret of RVAs success. Me and my team build a large pig enclosure without knowing anything about it before. Our teacher gave us advise and we just had to be creative. The result was rewarding! On top of that you will meet young people from all around the globe and can exchange your stories and thoughts, which was totally awesome. Now I have a lot of friends in different countries!

My knowledge about Climate Change, poverty, social economical systems, organic farming and eco literacy increases every day since Im working for RVA. My position as a teacher has provided me with the knowledge to work in many different fields, with many different people. I became more flexible and humble.

When the students come back from serving period in Belize or Ecuador and the work in the projects of Humana People to People, they have many different stories. For me, personally the best is always the interaction with the local community - the organic gardens which they built together, the different activities as mobilizing people to clean the village from plastic, the different workshops, the classes for healthy food, tropical diseases, etc.

I personally am teacher of the Climate Compliance program which is a 6 months. I love this program because it has the perfect mixture of theory lessons which are followed by practical actions in our academy or in the community. Addressing the Climate Change as a global threat for the entire biota is essential and there for the more people who join the better.

We are front runners in the education for Climate Change. But more than just studies we are giving practical examples of how to mitigate the carbon footprint. We are almost all year powered by a PV system, we harvest the rain water and use it for our domestic needs and for watering the garden.

We have biogas and biochar production. We produce organic vegetables and our animals are free range. Our students become Climate Change educators and whenever they go in the world they are able to speak about the issue. They are very well prepared to react in our changing world environment.

All the people who are working in the academy are passionate in changing the world or more correctly - to stop polluting our home planet. All of us have common goals and this makes our communication much easier. All of us - principal, promoters, teachers, workers, students - are taking the decision how to run the academy together and this makes our small community very united.