New Initiative Teaches Children To Grow And Market Herbal Teas
An initiative aimed at giving children with disabilities a chance to thrive was launched by Kidspace Education Limited on Tuesday.
The programme, which allows the children to grow their own teas, was funded by the Digicel Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking at the launch of « Rooted », Director of Kidspace Education Limited, Rynelle Boyce, explained the importance of the initiative.
« I always wanted to give children this opportunity, especially those with special needs and disabilities, a pathway for growth, success, entrepreneurship, development, just to provide those life skills and those developmental milestones and goals that they would need for the future. »
Ms. Boyce said the children are already actively planting.
« We already started hydroponics, and the children, they have green thumbs because everything thrives. If I plant something, it dies. I don’t know, I don’t know. But they really thrived at gardening and we decided, Auntie Sue, who’s the leader of the vocational group, she decided, her and I, we’re going to take it another step further. »
Ms. Boyce said the students have planted different varieties of teas.
« The children were able to plant their own varieties of mint. We did have some shortcomings in the beginning with some crop. We lost crops early on, but all of these challenges just led to us pivoting and really showed the children’s resilience as well as ours. So we were all learning on the go, and we were able to plant orange balm, lemon balm, different varieties of mint. We were able to source and create different relationships with different farmers. »
Look out for « Rooted » teas at your nearest bakery and pop-up shop.
