St Peters:--- The 1973 Hit Song Slogan by the great Bob Marley and Peter Tosh today plays one of the greatest roles in motivating many community-oriented activists. The phrase GET UP, STAND UP, stimulates our minds and souls to ACT! Act on behalf of nature, cultural preservation, injustice, prejudice, workers' rights, quality education, protecting our children, the right to peace and justice, opportunity, and overall love for humanity.
None of the above is worth giving up the fight, and because some chose not to, it brought an abundance of possibilities to those who deserved it.
Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR) has done just that. Got up and Stood Up!
An organization that focuses on strengthening the capacity of other community organizations, was much in need. With their core values such as education, leadership, equality and accountability, they have also became role models to us at ECO St Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Center Foundation and others.
Today, we are here because of the fire ignited by organizations and slogans that challenge the inequalities along this journey we call life while working towards leaving a fertile path of abundant resources and fruit in all aspects for our communities and future generations!
Taking a stand for what you truly believe in is the beginning of achieving it.
ECO SXM stands behind the principle of Educating, Cultivating, and reaching out to community members and those interested in achieving agricultural sustainability and resilience for our children, communities, and Island.
‘’Nothing good comes easy, and nothing easy or cheap ain't good.’’ Wyatte, Project Coordinator at ECO SXM.
At the end of the day, what you put in is what you will get out. The same aspect can be applied to one's health and our communities. What we put in is what we get out. Currently, it is not sufficient or anything, but that has slowly been adjusting as we see more positive organizations such as R4CR emerging in our communities.
One of the trending reasons why We believe our communities are not moving forward is simply because of less or no community input from it’s members or non active organizations.
Most of us put our money into supermarkets in the community, for example. But think of it: What do those current supermarket owners do? They pooled their resources together and created a supply chain for Us, supported by Us.
Some, may see it as a very strategic cooperative move, and it is. It’s also just business. So, the next question would be…. Can We pool together resources and create supply chains to meet our community members demands? The simple Answer is, Yes. R4CR has clearly demonstrated that such methods can yield great results by providing adequate resources.
So, Why are we not doing it? Well, that may lead to a whole other paragraph.
We believe that many have tried and have lost confidence in others and themselves due to lack of support, consistency, transparency and accountability. These 3 simple things play great role in how we build our integrity!
Integrity is the quality of honesty and, strong moral principles, moral uprightness.
"he is known to be a man of integrity”. This is what you want to be known for. It’s the greatest recognition one can be honored with.
We at ECO SXM focus on just that, ‘’integrity’’. It is the foundation of what we build and ensures that our principles and intentions are guided by such.
By upholding integrity and pooling our resources such as Intellectual properties, administration, agriculture, consulting, catering, local product development, and other essential services, there is no doubt that we may be able to come up with some pretty cool and creative project \ business ideas that can be geared toward meeting our community and its members needs and objectives. In the end, this leads to a more resourceful, sustainable community in all aspects.
Together, we can do just that, and it doesn’t take a whole lot to achieve it, as every little one counts.
We Thank R4CR for all the little things that they do, for it takes every little brick or block to build a home on this beautiful Island we call St Maarten..
Over the past 7 months, the trials and triumphs in developing our new greenhouse towards increasing our capacity of local agricultural production brought us great insight, learning experiences, and joyful human interactions that will stand the test of time.
ECO SXM looks forward to making more resources available to community members and the general public such as educational programs, soil, seeds, seedlings, plants, home gardening \ farming assistance and project development in every effort to keep the awareness and importance of Agriculture for our communities alive.
Adding Strength to the capacity of ECO SXM and the development of our additional greenhouse, which features traditional and advanced approaches towards the development of agriculture, will allow us to execute our ECO Learning Programs for 2024, which started in Feb of this year and will encourage community members to get more involved in the much-neglected sector that is of most value. It’s time for us to Get up and Stand up!
The Government of the Netherlands funds this project via the Sint Maarten
Trust Fund. The R4CR (Resources for Community Resilience) program is administered by the
World Bank, implemented by VNGI and overseen by the NRPB.
Interested in contacting ECO St Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Center Foundation for any of the above-mentioned resources? Please feel free to email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our Facebook page
@ facebook.com/StMaartenAgriculture
