Sow a Seed: Agriculture project at St Mary’s Home a hit with the kids

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?”

A once abandoned project space built by the Ministry of Education ten years ago at the St Mary’s Children’s Home for children in Tacarigua has blossomed in recent years into the most popular programme offered at the home.

While the St Mary’s Garden Project does not grow silver bells and cockleshells like the nursery rhyme, its produce is still quite impressive, as it is, for the most part, done by the children at the home.

Newsday was given a tour of the garden and details on the administration’s plans to nurture the children’s new-found interest in agriculture.

The St Mary’s Home, established 166 years ago as a home for orphaned boys of East Indian indentured labourers, is now a home for displaced children. It currently houses 41 children ages five to 17.

Children's home manager Gwenyth Bleasdell has been at St Mary’s since November 1, 2021.

“I think St Mary’s is one of the best children’s institutions in TT,” she told Newsday. “I believe we will continue to improve and to strive. Prior to me coming in, I had no meaningful impact on what was already good work established by prior management. I walked into a good environment.”

Bleasdell said on her first day she hit the ground running when she was given a tour of the grounds and came across the garden project, led by acting farm manager and dorm supervisor Rubiero Acosta.

She immediately saw the potential of the project and has been working with the team to develop it.

“The children have been very serious about the project and all of them get involved at various stages,” Bleasdell said.

Acosta said it is the only project offered at the home in which everyone participates willingly.

Other members of the team include Jamila Guischard who assists on the agriculture committee and Gizelle Burton, programme co-ordinator of the Sow a Seed initiative, the next phase of the project.

The children planted a variety of produce including lettuce, pak choi, chive, pimentos, tomatoes, bhagi, and cucumbers.

“We want to create a self-sustainable system where we can feed the kitchen produce and, once we have an abundance, provide to other homes in the area and beyond,” Bleasdell said.

“We have children here with siblings in other homes and it would be good to allow them to take the day and spend time with their siblings. It would also cut some of the cost for us here.”

She said the home is hoping to partner with companies to get the Sow a Seed initiative off the ground.

“We are also currently in talks with MIC Institute of Technology in certifying the children based on the CVQ (Certificate of Vocational Qualifications) and they are willing to send in teachers to teach agriculture.”

Acosta also said on the other side of the compound, in an area once used as a basketball court, the team would like to launch a hydroponics programme and develop grow bags – a planter containing a sterile growing medium and nutrients – for purchase.

Hydroponics is a system where plants grow in a nutrient solution rather than soil. Acosta said the team would like to use vertical hydroponic growers, with each tower purchased by a donor. They are also looking at including chicken broilers and layers, more trees and beds for vegetation.

“As we go, we will experiment. We are quite proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the five months that I have been here. We have grown exponentially, and we intend to keep growing,” Bleasdell said.

Other planned projects include infrastructural work. “Our desire is to create a model home that will allow us to prepare the children to be successful citizens in society and I really want to see us make our best effort to get that done in the best way we can.”

Acosta chairs the events committee which oversees activities throughout the year. He said the is planning a programme called Daddy’s Day Care where the men on the compound show their skills to the children. Activities will include learning how to lay blocks, tiles, the basic maintenance of a car, plumbing and electrical.

Bleasdell has a background in sociology and psychology, holds a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in administration and management. She did her master’s practicum at St Mary’s in 2009, and volunteered for a year at the home after she completed her degree.

Since then, she has worked in various homes and volunteered her services throughout TT and regionally, including the Beetham Gardens Police Youth Club and the Liberty Lodge Home for Boys in St Vincent, working alongside the family services division on the island.

Bleasdell said St Mary’s has a full welfare team that works together to ensure the children who pass through are given the education and resources they need to be productive. The team consists of four social workers, a psychologist and a clinical nurse.

“We work together to meet all the needs of the child using a biopsychosocial-spiritual model. It is a holistic approach comprising physical, health, educational recreational, leisure, and spiritual needs.

She said they are also in the process of launching a transition programme to help the older children as they phase out of the system.

She said the home offers an after-care service where they check up on past residents. “We do the necessary research to ensure they transition into an environment that is healthy for them…Any definition of a successful life must include service to others.”

Both Bleasdell and Acosta believe that all those who contribute to the team at St Mary’s have the children’s best interests at heart. “They care about the children and the well-being of the home and they care about one another,” Bleasdell said.

“When you are in a place where you see something and you can assist, you should. Social work, for me, was like that. I always had a desire to add value in my space. I believe fundamentally that is what motivated me.

“I don’t think you can effectively sit in the position I am in, or any position on the compound, and be effective if you don’t have the desire to add value. My mother would say, ‘We are each other’s life.’ So, when something happens in your life it automatically affects the lives around you. I understood at a young age it didn’t matter how old I was, or whether I engaged in positive or negative behaviour, I had an impact just by being a member of society.”

Bleasdell said her mother is a teacher and she was raised in an environment where there were always children in and out of the house. “I think I was born to it if I had to tell the truth. It is the area I believe I add the most value.”

Acosta said during his time in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), within the first week he was selected as a team commander and at one point had 60 trainees. “Dealing with young people was always my thing.”

He said when he first started interacting with children from the home, he was working on a ten-acre farm across the river that runs alongside the school.

“We would build relationships with the children in the home over time. After they closed the farm, I came up here to work. There was no farm but there was the area there that was built by the ministry.

“They weren’t using it, so permission was given to use the area. I had the support of the last two managers – Patricia Martin and Fitzroy Henry – to go ahead with it. I am not giving up (on them) I am here for the long haul.”

Acosta said he once read on a billboard near St Augustine, “Any definition of a successful life must include service to others.” He said they have become his watchwords and always takes note of the sign when he is in the area.

“I believe we were chosen to help people and here I am.”

Bleasdell said the home has faced some challenges over the years before her arrival and some even after, but she is determined to work through them as they come.

“In any environment where people are working together you will have challenges and differences in opinions. We are no different. In terms of running a home it is always nice to have the income to do the things you want to do.

“I have found that in my time here people are always willing to donate and give (but) with all the ideas and opportunities for development you will find you will (still) run into hurdles to finance projects.”

The home is partly funded by the government and receives donations from the public.

“Another challenge we face is meeting the requirements of our vision which is to prepare the children for the outside world. We have to deal with the various institutions that have managerial governance over the home.

“There are issues with communication (and) getting paperwork can be a challenge sometimes. Some things get lost in translation. Even external institutions – the judicial system, Children’s Authority – though they would have their own internal issues they are willing to work with us to get (the work) done for the benefit of the children.”

The home has also received assistance from organisations like SURE foundation which recently assisted in building a classroom near the garden. This was built by a student with hearing and speaking disabilities.

Bleasdell said despite the challenges most of the people with whom they have to interact mean well and understand the work being done is for the greater good.