The tenants of protecting the environment, empowering women, fighting poverty, fostering education and providing healthcare exactly align to the mission of GAMAE International. GAMAE International looks to support and promote Agricultural Education and Training (AET) through an Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) for sustainable economic development. One of the obstacles for English speaking Garifuna in Dangriga and elsewhere in Southern Belize has been due to their geographical location. Most of the available agricultural resources for Belize economic development is provided in Spanish by Latin American countries/programs which creates a language barrier to Garifuna’s people access to, and therefore benefit from, these resources.
GAMAE International seek and find solutions by creating an environment where the Garifuna community (women, men, young adults, and youths) can obtain the agricultural education and training in food production and food security to foster economic growth, create employment and alleviate poverty. GAMAE, International agricultural programs are designed to accomplish long term goals for the Garifuna community. With our premise to promote jobs and to encourage entrepreneurship, our program goal is to boost the economy through modern approaches to agriculture. Our hope is to inspire and train the Garifuna youth and young adults to view agriculture as a profitable and viable avenue to economic advancement and food-security. The successful implementation of these programs will have the additional benefit of increasing the availability of nutritional foods to improve the overall health of the community.
With youth involvement in sustainable agriculture our efforts are to promote and appreciate the natural resources of the country and to establish a movement in this abandoned field. The thought is with an agricultural program in place on the school grounds, the youth can grow, sell their products on an e-commerce platform. Teaching the children entrepreneurial skills will change their view of small scale farming with that of a potential for a career path in sustainable agriculture.
With a global trend of small to mid size farming practices, GAMAE with the local schools can be well positioned to contribute to decrease the impact of global warming by reducing the goal to reduce the carbon foot print. We can work to enhance community development by engaging youth in small-scale framing.
Please help us meet our goals!
