Green Earth Festival Who’ll Be There?
NASSAU, Bahamas. − April 11, 2016 – Green Earth Festival will return to Nassau, Bahamas April 23-24th. Now in its 5th year in the nation’s capital, the Green Earth Festival is attended by hundreds of Bahamian residents and visitors alike and offers a vibrant, dynamic marketplace for innovative green products and services.
In celebration of health in body, mind and spirit, attendees will have an opportunity to discover new, practical and easy ways to live healthier, more sustainable lives at Green Earth Festival with thousands of products offered by new brands, national and local businesses and pioneering thinkers in the sustainability field.
“The Green Earth Festival provides an outstanding opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to rediscover themselves and the power that comes from all things green; green energy, green environments, green eating, green living;” said Aisha Nesut Ani, partner in NaturaLife. The Green Festival will be held at the Historic Fort Charlotte and the stone space and open air will come alive with vendors, people and plants from Garden of Eden Plant Nursery.
“Green Earth Festival is ecstatic to be back after a one-year hiatus, for our 5th festival and we’re thrilled to welcome our 2016 exhibitors, sponsors, partners and attendees to Fort Charlotte,” said Rhonda Wright, the Green Earth Festival Founder. “This year we are honored to not only be offering a wider selection of green and sustainable products, services, and mini events, but we are happy to announce that the community organizations we are supporting and featuring at this year’s event, will tackle some of the major social issues we find our community dealing with, including fires at the Bahamas Landfill, youth crime and violence, mental health and animal cruelty.
Founded in 2015, Raising Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL) has an active social media presence that will again be brought to life at their GEF booth. There they will disseminate information about the health hazards associated with the landfill, along with Dr. Arlington Lightbourne. According to Laura Paine one of the groups leaders, “the aim is to raise awareness about the health hazards of waste landfills and create dialogue to improve the current waste management policies.” The advocacy group is promoting environmental sustainability, environmental education, recycling and seeking and providing solutions for the current dump. “Through education and putting pressure on the right parties we hope to ensure a sustainable future for us all” Paine added.
Young people play an important part of that future and they will be actively engaged throughout the Green Earth Festival, this is the reason Scotia Bank an organization that cares deeply about youth is involved and supporting the Green Tweens speakers forum, as well as organizations like The Mega Mergers Apprenticeship Program (MMAP). MMAP is a community-based organization that is geared toward introducing at risk youth to the basics of entrepreneurship and the importance of sustainability. Through their partnership with the Green Earth Festival, they hope sharing the work they do with the young people can lead to economic sustainability and growth in urban communities.
A holistic future for young people is the goal of Youths in Yoga, a program started by husband and wife team Daniel & Nebiyah Cinque in 2014. The program exposes young people to the benefits of yoga in hopes of positively transforming how they view themselves and therefore how they interact with the community. “Youth in the cities suffer due to the ma’afa, which is the tragedy of slavery. When I was there age this was something out of my reach because I came from the inner city. I extend it to youth who can’t afford it and would not normally be exposed to it, and this is what we will do at the Green Earth Festival” Daniel emphasized. The organization has held summer camps in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth and currently does work with Urban Renewal and Akhepran International Academy, and from the 23rd-24th children can join them at the GEF.
Young people won’t be the only ones benefiting from yoga however. In the serene Green Earth Oasis at the GEF, former dancer Mychal Brayan owner of Cosmosis Yoga Suite and Global Cultural Hub will also offer free yoga classes and lectures to adults. “Cosmosis Yoga Suite is meant to serve as a space where different artistic and spiritual backgrounds can come and share the culture they represent” Bryan noted.
While this year’s festival will not feature “doga” (dog’s practicing yoga), animal lovers are in for a treat. For the first time, The Humane Society will also be on-site at the Green Earth Festival. As one of the NGO’s the festival is supporting, The Humane Society will be present to raise awareness about the work of the society. They will also have puppies present for adoption. For Linda Gill-Aranha the GEF represents an opportunity to remind people that “its crucial that we begin to see these animals as important. Animals do so much for us and the environment and we have to take care of them because they can't speak for themselves.”
Ultimately taking care of oneself and the spaces one inhabits is the ultimate message of the Green Earth Festival. That message is why sponsors like My Kid’s Lunchbox and Solomon’s Fresh Market are supporting the 5th festival. Indeed Renea Knowles of AML Foods suggested that it was the key reason for their sponsorship when she said, “Solomon’s Fresh Market is dedicated to positively impacting the community and provides customers with a unique, healthy and friendly shopping experience, where even higher standards of freshness, quality of product and customer service are fundamental. Our mission is to support healthy living, contribute to the community that we live in, while helping to preserve our environment for future generations. We are always happy to partner with organizations like Green Earth Festival who share a similar purpose to promote healthy living and limit the impact on our environment.”
At this year’s Green Earth Festival opportunities for learning, sharing and growing abound. If a better life is what you want, then Fort Charlotte is the place to be from April 23-24, 2016.
For more information, email greenearthfestival@gmail.com, or check out the event on Facebook.
For More Information, please contact-
Rhonda Wright – 376-1213
OR
D’Asante Beneby – 359-1908
Pictured L – R in photo
Mychal Bryan, Cosmosis; Laura Paine, RABL; Rhonda Wright; Green Earth Festival Founder; Nebiyah Cinque, Youth in Yoga Co-Founder; Linda Gill-Aranha, Bahamas Humane Society; Daniel Cinque, Youth in Yoga Co-Founder.