NGOS vie for $1.5m in EPIC Digicel Foundation grants

FIFTEEN non-governmental organisations (NGO) are vying for ten $150,000 grants to fund projects addressing initiatives such as equity and sustainability across Trinidad and Tobago.

For the second year, the Extraordinary Projects Impacting Communities (EPIC) 2024-2025 programme is in partnership with the Digicel Foundation and Shell TT.

This grant initiative was initially launched in 2016. Since then, the programme has funded 150 projects, with over 880,000 people across the country benefiting from these projects, said a Digicel Foundation media release on October 7.

The combined investment is $1.4 million, with Shell donating over $500,000. The grant will be awarded to ten of the 15 participating NGOs, set to be announced in November.

On September 11, the participants pitched their projects to a judging panel of directors from the Digicel Foundation and a team from Shell TT at Digicel's headquarters in Port of Spain.

The presentations outlined project-implementation plans, innovations, sustainability goals and budgets, the release said.

The proposed projects tackled critical issues in five categories. These are renewable energy, agriculture, education, technology and environment.

Shortlisted NGOs: Adult Literacy Tutors association, Arts in Action, Cashew Gardens, Court Shamrock, Eva Foundation, Gasparillo Organisation for Community Development, Grande Riviere Tourism Development Organisation, UWI's Institute for Gender Development Studies, Learning to Live Meaningfully, Living Water Community, Rebirth House, Ryu Dan Empowerment Foundation, Trinidad and Tobago Association of Energy Engineers, We Code Caribbean and Women Owned Media and Education Network.