By Jerelle O’Brien
My first project at Create was to deal with food and water security linked to climate change. The work I produced reflected how climate change has increased the frequency and severity of hurricanes especially affecting the caribbean. I chose to highlight this aspect of the topic because of its effect on the food and water security of those affected by it. After a natural disaster, a lot of areas have difficulty accessing clean water and proper food. While doing this project, we produced weekly blogs on our findings and progress made on our projects.
Food and water security globally is a 2030 sustainable development goal, another topic I learnt about before joining create but research more on after. Through this research and a missed opportunity for a competition, I decided to request permission of Dr Esprit to conduct a research project on building underground farms in order to facilitate in the achievement of this SD goal. Underground farming provides an innovative and safe way to ensure that food is grown and stored in times of need.
My time so far as an intern has also helped me develop my knowledge in certain software such as Storymap, Adobe and ArcGIS. The programs used during the Create and Code summer camp has also been an interesting thing to learn, despite not having a full grasp on the concept. Learning these programs has not necessarily been easy. Technology has never really been my thing so manipulating these online resources took me a while to get used too. The carisealand project involves a lot of mapping and utilizing the arcGIS software. My contribution to the Carisealand Project involves the environmental resources present in the different islands of the Caribbean along with the production of the collection of resources I utilised for my projects. My hopes are to continue learning from all the opportunities Create provide and offer any ideas and further development I can to the institute.