Our Work 

Main Initiatives

Each month non-profit organisations that are members of FEEL receive email invitations to collect a donation of goods. The donations vary and are dependent on the support FEEL receives from its international and local partners.

FEEL has a network of international partners that provide bulk donation of goods in kind. FEEL uses these donations to support its work in:

• Poverty Alleviation
• Education and Capacity Building
• Medical Support
• Disaster Prevention and Recovery

FEEL School Support Programme

In mid 2015 Sister Theresa Vialva, was on her way to Port-of-Spain, at her wits end, thinking that she had exhausted every possibility in her search for furniture for use by the students of Holy Faith Convent, Couva. In what she can only describe as an intervention from God, she remembered Clive Pantin and the work of FEEL and decided to detour in to Fernandes Industrial Centre to see if she could find the organization. After driving around the compound, she was advised that FEEL had relocated. Eventually she found the organization, but found out that Mr. Pantin was retired. The CEO, Mrs. Elena Villafana-Sylvester came out of her office to ask how she could help. This was the start of a new relationship that has borne fruit, not only for the students of Holy Faith, but for students of overeighty primary and secondary schools.

Based on the feedback from Sister Theresa and discussions with principals at other schools, FEEL began its school support programme. “We started small at first, with only thirteen schools, but that has more than doubled this year. Schools benefit from a wide range of support including school furniture, cleaning supplies, toiletries, stationery, sports and music equipment.”

These are the most recent examples in a long history of working in education. In the past FEEL has worked with companies such as Phoenix Park Gas to build and outfit school libraries and Shell to donate school books and supplies. FEEL has also outfitted computer labs and provided music equipment to a number of schools. And now FEEL is ready to do even more.

In schools such as Holy Faith Convent which has implemented the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) to increase the technical and entrepreneurial skills of its students, FEEL has offered assistance in the form of sewing machines, agriculture, cricket, football and dance equipment. Now Holy Faith is positioned to expand its services to the wider community of Couva and environs so that parents of its school population can learn new skills. According to Sr. Theresa and Mrs. Villafana-Sylvester both organisations are aligned in their belief in the need to build the human resource capacity of the nation.

Tabaquite R.C. has taken full advantage of its relationship with FEEL to expand the Agriculture programme at the school. According to Mr. Woods, a teacher at the school, the excitement of the children is energizing. Now with support from FEEL, the school has added gas tillers and a water pump to its arsenal of agricultural tools to enhance and expand its capacity. “At Tabaquite R.C. we grow almost everything – tomatoes, peppers, pimentos and we even rear chickens,” says Mr. Woods.

At the distribution of school supplies for the start of the new school term we caught up with the principals of Cumuto Presbyterian, MonteVideo Government Primary and Exchange R.C. all waiting to load their trucks with supplies from the FEEL warehouse. In addition to primary and secondary schools, preschools, homework centres and other institutions supporting learning and development also receive donations of school supplies.