ONE Eleuthera Community News

On behalf of the One Eleuthera and CTI family, I send best wishes to you and your family for a healthy, joyous, and prosperous 2022. I am happy to report that the positive momentum of the last quarter has carried over into this new year as we continue to pursue our community development goals and projects with renewed vigor!

This year is exceptionally significant as we will also celebrate OEF’s 10th Anniversary on Earth Day, April 22nd. I am constantly amazed and grateful for how far we’ve come. What started as a passionate dream of a “Shared Vision” for Eleuthera has blossomed into a strong and collaborative community ecosystem; one that is driving positive change, empowering people and providing tangible resources and sustainable solutions for our communities’ greatest challenges. I cannot thank you enough for your generous support, it makes all the good we do possible.

Among other accomplishments, your contributions ensure that the unemployed are given access to education and training opportunities to transform and build their lives, emergency medical transport and fire services are provided to save lives and protect property and local farmers are supported in growing and supplying nutritious food to our communities.

The mission and journey continue and I’m humbled to have partners like you who are committed to making a lasting impact in the lives of others. There’s much to celebrate just ahead, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading the highlights of the last quarter in this edition of our newsletter.

With deep gratitude,

The One Eleuthera Team was thrilled to welcome U.S. Chargé Usha Pitts, and her family to our Rock Sound Campus on October 21^st during her visit to Eleuthera.

 
Chargé Pitts participated in a property tour and presentation of OEF’s ongoing work in creating sustainable development, innovative solutions, and community impact centered on 5 Key Areas of Focus: economy, education, environment, health and heritage.
 

Chief Project Officer Keyron Smith shared highlights from OEF’s five-year strategic plan and insights around the impact of our most successful community programs. These include the signature “Learn and Earn” education and vocational training program, geared to unemployed students aged 18 to 35 and recent farmer training initiatives introduced to help farmers increase crop yields and profitability.

 
During the farm tour, Chargé Pitts learned how OEF is strengthening the local farming industry through shared knowledge, access, and cutting-edge technology. She viewed the newly constructed 1.1-acre retractable Cravo Cooling House. With its revolutionary retractable roof and wall system, the Cravo Cooling House provides the optimum growing conditions in tropical climates by reducing damaging sun, wind and rain exposure.
 

This is especially critical during hot summer months and periods of extreme weather. OEF’s Cooling House Operations Officer, Tim Hauber shared the organization’s vision of contributing to national food security goals by

growing year-round, while providing greater community access to fresh, locally grown, nutritious, health-boosting foods.

Chargé Pitts learned that like the rest of the farm, the Cravo cooling house will operate as a “live lab” providing hands-on training for local farmers in hydroponic growing and general operations.
 
While exploring best practices, Tim and the farm team will also be accruing data on this new and revolutionary “controlled environment” facility that can be shared throughout The Bahamas and the region. The next phase of development will include a seedlings lab and food processing plant to support the local production of shelf stable, added-value foods.
 
We look forward to welcoming Chargé Pitts and her lovely family back to our campus to see these new developments as they take place!
 

 
Chargé Pitts began her tour at the US Embassy in The Bahamas on Jan. 1st, 2021. Prior to this post, she served at diplomatic posts in Russia, Cuba, Italy, Austria, Panama and Brazil. She has also served in Washington, DC, and New York City.

During her most recent tour abroad, she led the US Consulate General in Recife, a seaside city in Brazil’s growing Northeast region. She also worked in Rome and Vienna as a US liaison to international organizations, dealing with food security and atomic energy.

Weather plays a crucial role in farming and can affect many aspects of the daily activities that take place on our farm. With our newly installed solar-powered Weather Station the farm team will now be one step ahead in forecasting the weather and planning for maximum productivity.

This nifty new device is one of only a handful on the island. It will run virtually uninterrupted thanks to sustainable solar power panels as it records rainfall, temperature, wind speed, wind direction and the sun’s UV index to inform the team of specific weather conditions, whether favorable or unfavorable. Every 15 seconds updated information will be collected and posted online giving real-time readings.

Over time, the Weather Station will allow the farm team to process the data collected to detect trends and seasonal weather patterns. The Weather Station was set up and taken online with the assistance of Marjahn Finlayson of The Island School. It’s located at the Honey Shack, which is part of our apiary. 

One Eleuthera recently made international headlines with a feature on our Cravo Cooling House published on HortiDaily.

HortiDaily is a horticultural newsletter and the biggest online platform in the horticultural industry. It informs over 51,000 subscribers on a daily basis, many of whom are global industry suppliers and greenhouse growers.

In an exclusive interview with Tim Hauber, our Cooling House Operations Officer, HortiDaily explored how he is planning a twofold approach to growing in the Cravo Cooling House with half of the growing area devoted to soil-based growing and the other half to low-tech hydroponics.

In the interview, Tim explains that leafy greens will be produced in a Deep Water Culture (DWC) system on the hydroponics side, while vine crops will be produced in Bato buckets.

The production methods will be kept simple to ensure the facility fulfills an educational purpose utilizing accessible technology that local farmers can share in and emulate.

“Our main goal is to promote agriculture in the Bahamas since we import 95% of our food, so we don’t want our approach to be too high-tech and inaccessible,” says Tim.

Due in part to its reliance on imported, processed foods, The Bahamas has a high incidence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disorders.

Access to fresh food is particularly challenging in Eleuthera as food is typically shipped from Florida to Nassau and then Eleuthera, at which point its nutritional quality has dropped significantly. The article highlights how the Cravo Cooling House will increase food production, community access to nutritious foods and on-site training to assist local farmers.

With the external structure complete, we are eagerly looking forward to receiving the electrical components to completely finish the Cravo Cooling House build. The next phase will be planting!

(See the resource section at the end of this newsletter for a link to the full HortiDaily article.)

Our Backyard Farming community is growing and thriving at the Farm. Gardening enthusiasts of all ages, and from all walks of life have been enjoying this free series designed to help participants establish and maintain a lush, mixed vegetable subsistence garden. 

The Saturday classes with Dr. Selima are hands-on and allow members of the community to learn and enjoy gardening in a relaxed atmosphere where all the necessary resources are provided.

Students have been able to master planting, producing seedlings and garden maintenance among other skills. We’ve been pleased to see parents and families participating and sharing the joys of growing a garden with the next generation of young farmers.

OEF’s inaugural “Sweeps Week” campaign took place on Nov. 29th through Dec. 2nd. Sweeps Week was created as a collaborative initiative to assist the organization in achieving three pivotal goals before the close of 2021. 

The key objectives were to solidify partnerships with external organizations, help drive year-end giving, and raise local awareness about OEF/CTI and our extensive community development work.

The OEF team consisting of OEF-U.S. President, C. Lane Glaze, Chief Project Officer, Keyron Smith, and Chief Communications Officer, Yolanda Pawar traveled to Nassau for a productive and busy week. The itinerary included meetings with strategic partner organizations and board members, media appearances, and courtesy calls on Government agencies. These events also provided an opportunity to distribute OEF’s newly minted 2020/2021 Annual Report.

This document tells the story of OEF’s community impact, the many milestones reached and successful projects undertaken within the last fiscal year.

The week debuted with a national press conference announcing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and our education and training institution, the Centre for Training and Innovation (CTI).

The MOU solidifies an ongoing partnership between both organizations to work together in strengthening Eleuthera’s farming industry. Through increased training initiatives, educational workshops, and shared resources, the goal would be to give local farmers even greater support to be competitive and expand their operations, knowledge and capacity.

Anton D. Sealey spent his childhood in beautiful Savannah Sound, Eleuthera. He maintains a deep love for the island, which has now become his family’s second home.

Throughout his life, Mr. Sealey has found ways to contribute to the development of his country and community through personal leadership, professional development and civic service. 

Mr. Sealey works as a Director at a leading Insurance company in New Providence. He is currently the Chairman of The Bahamas Insurance Association, Chairman of the Bahamas Maritime Authority, and President of The Bahamas Football Association.

He is keenly passionate about OEF’s mission, which aims to solve challenges by empowering people within local communities to become organized, build capacity, capitalize on their unique, lived experiences and play a direct role in building a sustainable community model.

Dr. Kim Williams-Pulfer was born in Nassau, Bahamas, and has family roots in Savannah Sound, Eleuthera,

Currently, she is a Leading Edge Fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). As a fellow, Dr. Williams-Pulfer is appointed to the Hurston/Wright Foundation as Research and Evaluation Manager. She also serves on the board of Charitable Allies. Her dissertation, “Get Involved: Stories of the Black Postcolonial Middle Class and the Development of Civil Society,” reflects her research interests and community work.

Dr. Williams-Pulfer serves as Secretary on the OEF-US Board. She has worked alongside One Eleuthera for many years providing consultancy services and deep insights into the Caribbean third sector based on her expertise and field of study.

She is a passionate advocate for the development of Civil Society, local empowerment, and sustainable community development. 

Thank you for your continued support! It’s because of your donations that we’re able to reach, uplift and empower people and communities.