Nkrumah Green – Transforming a ‘woman’s’ world

He’s the good looking ‘strong, silent type’, a man who actually makes his living by working in a woman’s organisation – the Womens’ Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC) as a livelihood co-ordinator. He is a 1995 graduate of the College of Agriculture Science and Education (CASE), who has a very interesting career helping poor, chicken farmers and cash crop farmers in St Thomas.

For Nkrumah Green, work means helping 250 poultry and cash crop farmers to effectively manage their farms. It means helping them to rebuild after a disaster and educating them on proper practises.

He stands as the sole male in a line of female employees within WRO, an organisation that offers a variety of programmes in health and wellness, women empowerment, counselling and education programmes, and programmes for the elderly.

“Nkrumah is very jovial and you can call on him at the spur of the moment and even if he is swamped he still does it. He is that type,” says Christine Senior, community mobiliser at WROC.

Green started his employ in 2004 following hurricane Ivan.

Upon employment, his responsibility was to co-ordinate a six-month rehab project in St Thomas to get farmers back on their feet. Today, three years later, and two hurricanes in between, Green is still in St Thomas lobbying for help for the farmers and assisting them through donor agencies such as Christian-Aid, based in England, and other local non-governmental organisations.

He shares his passion for helping with all woman.

What’s the deal with you and WROC?

Right now I feel privileged and honoured to be the only man in that organisation. When I first went there I must admit that I was a bit nervous. But upon interacting with the ladies I felt quite at home. I really feel like a part of the team. I taught the Sciences at Seaford High school before, so I was quite used to having a lot of females around me.

Why St Thomas?

“St Thomas has always been hard- hit by hurricanes and even heavy rains. The farmers here are always at a disadvantage, they will lose crops and infrastructure. My job is to assist with inputs to restart and give technical advice.”

One such technical advice resulted in the building of model poultry units in White Horse. His job takes him to the communities of Pamphret, Botany Bay, White Horses, Johnson Mountain, Tarris, Spring Bank, Trinityville, Font Hill, Danvers Pen, Georgia, Mt Vernon, Somerset and Mt Lebanon.

After Hurricane Dean?

After Hurricane Dean, he was actively involved in the rebuilding of the St Thomas communities and giving out mattresses, tarpaulins, baby kits, blankets, hygiene kits and bleach to purify the water. This was made possible through WROC which established a disaster committee in each community to quickly identify the needs of residents.

Why agriculture?

Agriculture has always been his passion. This was partly due to the fact that he grew on a 2,000 acres of sugar cane farm in St Thomas.

“My dad managed an absentee farm back then, and so I used to run through and through the cane field using my teeth to bite down the canes from the root,” he says.

When he was old enough, Green enrolled in Elim Agriculture School in St. Elizabeth then the Jamaica School of Agriculture.

“I love agriculture,” he said simply.

What change would he want to see the present government take towards agriculture?

“Our policy makers need to be cognisant of the fact that a nation that cannot feed itself is not a nation.”

There are many crops that we are not growing that we should be growing, such as rice, wheat and corn. Rice is like our national dish. Every Sunday people are eating rice. You might think it cannot grow here but it is from the grass family and it grows easily. We have the soil for it.

We can easily be a first world country because everything we grow the palatability of it is so great, it is always in demand.”

What type of person are you, really?

Green describes himself as a hardworking person who enjoys what he does. He is extremely pleased with the fact that at the end of the day he is able to give a helping hand to the ‘grass root’ persons around him. He describes himself as simple, independent and patriotic.

-husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com