Five non-governmental organisations have received a total of $500,000 from the Digicel Foundation and Shell Trinidad and Tobago under the Extraordinary Projects Impacting Communities (EPIC) Grant Programme.
The beneficiaries include SEWA International and the Scouts Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
Through this initiative, SEWA International was able to install a solar-powered system at its multi-purpose facility in Piarco.
SEWA’s President, Revan Telucksingh, said this will play a major role, especially in times of disaster.
“Now we have a home that we can train our volunteers in community emergency response training. We can do yoga for anxiety. As you can see, we have some signs in the back. We can do our blood donations here. So this facility is going to be under constant use, and this entire project is not only going to be preparing us for resilience in a disaster, but it will be mitigating our costs while we do all of these activities.”
Board Director of the Digicel Foundation, Sacha Thompson, noted that in the past 10 years, thousands of citizens have been able to benefit from the collaboration with Shell.
“One hundred and seventy EPIC projects completed. So, that’s hundreds of communities touched. We’re talking about five today. Very important and impactful. Who will continue to impact, right? But that’s hundreds of communities touched, thousands of lives improved, but what began as a small grants programme.”
Ms. Thompson said Shell has pledged its support to the foundation for another three years.
“When matched by the Digicel Foundation, that financial pledge, in partnership with Shell, is a combined investment of 3.8 million dollars in sustainable community development and the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Ms Thompson says applications are now open for 2026/2027, where ten new NGOs will be selected for grants each worth $100,000.