On June 1st, 2016 in Nassau, Bahamas, One Eleuthera Foundation(OEF) CEO, Mr Shaun Ingraham served as one of several panelist at the VI annual IDB Caribbean Civil Society Meeting.
The IDB Group maintains a regular exchange with civil society organizations (CSOs) from 26 countries within Latin America and the Caribbean. The Group meets annually with Caribbean CSOs. This year’s Caribbean Civil Society meeting was held in Nassau, Bahamas and the topic was devoted to Sustainable Growth and CSOs in the region.
The forum was hosted by the Vice President for Countries, Alexandre Meira da Rosa and had Civil Society Organizations’ representatives from 7 Caribbean countries namely: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.
Mr Ingraham, spoke on key issues of interest to civil society. He focused on social entrepreneurship and its role in sustainable growth of projects and programs under OEF’s five focus areas which are Education, Health, Environment, Economic Development and Culture and Heritage. Mr Ingraham highlighted OEF’s projects and partner organizations and used them as an example of sustainable Civil Society Organizations in the local and regional context.
Other panelist speakers included Therese Turner-Jones, General Manager, IDB Group and Tomas Bermudez, the Country Representative, Trinidad and Tobago, IDB Group.
OEF’s goal is to strengthen the Eleuthera community by investing in high quality projects and a key component to achieving this goal is connecting people to the necessary resources to effectively further Eleuthera’s economic and environmental sustainability.
Mr Ingraham highlighted how One Eleuthera is creating sustainable development models anyone can follow. Through social enterprise OEF seeks to solve social problems and grow important, beneficial and sustainable opportunities on the island.
Examples of sustainable growth and social enterprise models OEF is developing include Eleuthera Community Farms (ECF) with locations at Centre of Training and Innovation (CTI), South Eleuthera Emergency Partners (SEEP) and Cancer Society Eleuthera. ECF are producing local fruits and vegetables that open doors to revenue streams resulting from the sale of these products and further opportunities for food education and security on Eleuthera.
To find out more about the work of One Eleuthera visit www.oneeleuthera.org. Get involved by becoming a member today and make an impact. Sign up at www.oneeleuthera.org/join-us.
