The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

A NEW organisation seeks to empower women economically through training, cultural exchange, networking and the promotion of international trade.

The Bahamas Network of Rural Women Producers (BAHNROP) was formed two weeks ago to help women throughout the Bahamas create better lives for themselves and families.

BAHNROP was formed under the Exuma Woman Project (EWP) which is a project funded by UN Women and managed by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in the Bahamas.

The Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers (CANROP), is the umbrella organisation that embraces national chapters of rural women’s associations in the Caribbean. The regional network is a non-profit organisation.

The network was launched in 1999, to create a single entity of already existing associations of rural women producers. These associations had been established in response to the need to equip women with technical, administrative and entrepreneurial skills as a means to improving their socio-economic status and create employment in the rural areas in which they live.

“Rural in the case of the Bahamas would mean those women that manufacture and sell their own products in particular those who live on the family islands, but of course women from New Providence as well,” Shacara Lightbourne, national technical specialist of the (IICA), told Tribune Woman.

“By being a part of BAHNROP, women will be able to network with other women in the region, be kept abreast of trainings in the region and take advantage of all the opportunities that being a part of a network of this calibre would offer,” she said.

Twenty-four women with varied backgrounds including farming, handicraft, business administration and food processing make up the local chapter.

The executive team includes Emily Rahming (president), Chavara Roker-Eneas (vice president), Rachel Daxon- Mackey (secretary), Margrette Curry (assistant secretary), Phyllis Thompson (treasurer), Erin Green (public relations), Patrice Green (director), Ruth Forbes, Denise Dorsett and Natasha Adderley.

The goals of the BAHNROP organisation are: to provide a forum for the exchange of information and ideas that help rural women producers address the concerns affecting the development of their businesses; create a brand that identifies the goods and services of members with quality products produced by rural women; pool resources for the marketing of products produced by members of BAHNROP; create training programmes to maintain and develop the interpersonal, technical, financial and business skills of its members; support and promote projects which support rural women producers in the development of their communities; access external funding from national and multi-national donor agencies to support national work programmes and provide a forum that facilitates the discussion of gender equality and equity within the country.

“We hope that BAHNROP will be a network of individuals, organisations and affiliates interested in supporting rural women producers, processors and handicraft women in the Bahamas. Many times the most beautiful crafts are made and the most high quality vegetables or animals are grown on our family islands but the market never sees it. The world never sees it.

“BAHNROP will be an avenue to ensure women of the Bahamas’ gifts are hidden no longer. BAHNROP will also make these women more business savvy and show them what can happen and how far they can go when everyone works together. It is hoped that BAHNROP will work alongside BNCA and BAIC who have been trailblazers in promoting the efforts of women producers, handicrafters and processors for years,” she said.