When was GTI established?

Green Team International was founded in 2013 as an outgrowth of the ecotourist site, St. Mary’s Peace Farm

Who are the founders?

Anne C. Bailey founded GTI in 2013. She was supported in this effort by Mr. Edwin Coleman, Ms. Sharon Burton, Mrs. G. Bauta and Mrs. Daphne Bailey.

The Trailblazers- the first Bauta Green Team Scholars

Our History: Back to the Land

The NGO Green Team International, originally an outgrowth of a previous eco-tourism venture in Oracabessa, Jamaica, was founded in 2013. This venture was meant to be a model for how rural communities in the African Diaspora and globally could maximize their natural resources. The NGO is located on 22 acres of well fruited land with three streams in the Jack’s River section of Oracabessa. The property is called St. Mary’s Peace Farm and Park -symbolizing peace within and the promotion of peace in our environment. We are committed to a Back to nature/Back to Basics philosophy with a focus on self-reliance and protecting the environment for future generations.

Since its founding, Green Team has facilitated school field trips to the Nature Preserve; given annual scholarships called The Bauta Green Team Scholarships to young people to continue their education and developed a summer Environmental camp for the local community. GTIalso helped develop the Wangari Maathai Environmental Center at Jack’s River Primary school in Oracabessa.

We have also started work on an arboretum of Jamaica’s endemic plants while we continue public awareness programs on the importance of reforestation, alternative energy, recycling and climate change. Finally, we planted over 200 mahogany trees in an area of the farm named Mahogany Walk.

In 2020, we added an additional site–this time in the community of Long Bay in the parish of Portland in Jamaica. This site includes 33 acres of farmland that is being developed for value- added agricultural products. It is at this location that Green Team International held its successful 10th anniversary conference with presentations on education, heritage, and the environment with a focus on resilience as a key theme in June 2024. Since opening this new location, we have continued our commitment to forging partnerships with various communities and have partnered with schools, libraries and farmers in Portland

In 2022, we expanded our scholarship program to include students applying to tertiary institutions – universities, colleges or trade schools. Every year since, we have expanded our GTI Collegiate Scholars program who have made significant contributions to their communities. Our Projects focus on:

Environmental Preservation

History and Memory

Education

Health and Wellness

Economic Development

Mission

Our mission is to empower people in North America, the Caribbean, the African Diaspora and the world in matters concerning education and the environment through community-based grassroots initiatives.

Green Team aims to also RECONNECT people to the land.

People

Board Members
  1. Anne C Bailey
  2. Hilary Robertson Hickling
  3. Monita Jackson
  4. Brenda Cave-James
Advisory Board
  1. Ms. Sharon Burton
Staff
  1. Mr. Edwin Coleman, Farm/Nature Preserve Manager.
  2. Mr. Vivian Foster (with seasonal assistance from members of the Corn Hill community.)
  3. Sangita Foote, GTI scholar and part time administrative consultant, Team Member
  4. Tamara Reid, GTI scholar and part time Coffee Company Business coordinator

Board Members

Anne C. Bailey is a writer, historian, and professor of History at SUNY Binghamton (State University of New York). In her works of non- fiction, she combines elements of travel, adventure, history, and an understanding of contemporary issues with an accessible style.  She is a US citizen who grew up in Jamaica, WI and in Brooklyn, New York.
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Anne C. Bailey, founder of the NGO, Green Team International, is also committed to making a difference in undeserved communities around the world. She is a longtime champion of environmental, cultural and sustainable development causes including climate change in United States, Africa, the Caribbean and the world.Bailey is also committed to a concept of “living history” in which events of the past are connected to current and contemporary issues. Her non-fiction book, African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (Beacon Press) and her current work,  The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History, (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reflect that commitment. She is also a contributor the acclaimed New York Times Magazine 1619 Project.

Bailey is also the founding Director of the Binghamton University/Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity.

Born in Jamaica to William and Daphne Bailey, her work has been informed by extended stays in Paris, London, and West Africa.  Recipient of the Fulbright and Coro Foundation awards, Bailey is also very involved in public history and historical preservation projects.  In her research, writing and public speaking, she highlights the lives and contributions of enslaved people of African descent in the Americas and around the world including her March 2013 intervention at the United Nations commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Bailey lives in upstate NY but spends time in AFrica and the Caribbean working on various environmental projects.

Monita Jackson, MBA is a seasoned accounting professional with over 25 years experience in accounting, human resources and taxation. She is passionate about financial literacy. She is a senior accountant at a steel manufacturer, Power Brace LLC and a tax professional at H&R Block. In her free time, she enjoys bowling, walking and attending festivals and concerts. Currently, she lives in Ankeny, Iowa, and enjoys spending time with her sons, Azri and Diego.
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Brenda Cave-James was born in and lived most of her life in the Broome County N.Y. area though she also has some ancestry in Barbados. She has been involved with numerous community causes and organizations over the years including theater, wellness and history- especially the early African American history of this region.

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Brenda is a writer, poet and playwright and former scriptwriter for Renaissance Theater and their Education through Theater via New York State’s Office of Mental Health.

She has several plays to her name, two of them produced for EPAC (Endicott Performing Arts Theater). Her Poetry in Commotion radio show airs twice weekly through WBDY 99.5 FM from the Bundy Museum in Binghamton- featuring her own work and that of the Harlem Renaissance era.

Brenda co-founded Trav’len This Road Quartet with her three “sisters” to sing and share meanings within the Scared Spirituals (aka Negro Spirituals). She designs programs with the songs woven around short stories or poetry for community fundraising.

As a fourth generation member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church organization- otherwise known as the Freedom Church, she lectures on the anti-slavery and Underground Railroad history of her Trinity AMEZ in Binghamton and Montrose Pa. and offers educational tours.

Brenda has four adult children and several grandchildren. Her late husband Freddie James passed in 2008. She lives in Endicott and works as a private duty nurse.

Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management in the Mona School of Business and Management at the University of the West Indies in Mona Jamaica. She teaches Organizational Behaviour, Organizational Development, Team Building and Management, and Pastoral Care and Counselling  She has studied at the  University of the West Indies , Johns Hopkins University and  the University of Birmingham, England and has taken her concerns about migration and mental health into her research at home in the Caribbean  and into the Caribbean Diaspora.

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She has published more than twenty articles in scholarly journals and several social scholarship articles in the popular press. Specializing in migration studies, she has published a book entitled “White Squall on the Land: Narratives of Resilient Caribbean People published by Hope Road Publishers, London, and “That Time in Foreign” published by Hansib London. She has worked as a management consultant and a psychologist.

In the midst of Emancipation Day, rain fell, lightning flashed, and thunder rolled. Across the English-speaking Caribbean, the descendants of the enslaved in the West and no doubt the descendants of the planters marked the day silently or just enjoyed another holiday.

But as I thought about this season, I realised that here in Jamaica, we had tried to be independent without being emancipated.

Those Jamaicans who declared Independence had not really grappled with what George Beckford described in his landmark publication, Persistent Poverty. The truth is that while some have benefited from the developments in the 57 years of Independence, many are still on the bones of their asses while others have been fatted on the spoils of corruption and patronage.

The idea that mental, physical social and economic freedom would be possible on borrowed multilateral funds is ridiculous. This is happening when a new wave of white supremacy is sweeping the north and the concomitant black inferiority is taking shape with hair, bleached skin and a reversal of the gains of black consciousness.

We cannot transform Jamaica if we continue to be in denial.

Hilary Robertson-Hickling PhD
hilary.hickling@gmail.com

Staff

Mr. Edwin Coleman, Park and Farm Manager

Mr. Coleman is a retired master teacher and agriculturalist from St. Mary, Jamaica. He is a committed public servant who is very involved in many service activities across the region. He holds an executive leadership position in the Friends (Quaker) community through which he has worked extensively with rural youth. He has played a critical role in the development of the Peace Farm since 2010.

Tamara Reid, Coffee Business Coordinator  

Tamara Reid is one of the Green Team Collegiate scholars. She also works for the organization as a part-time Coffee Business Coordinator. She
has excellent communication skills and has been a diligent Records Clerk and supervisor in the Jamaica library system for several years. She is also completing her undergraduate studies. She will have a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration.

Ms. Sangita Foote, GTI Scholar and part time administrative consultant  

Sangita L. Foote is a final year Marketing student majoring in Digital Marketing and Advertising Management at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean(UCC). Additionally, she is an Author, Administrative Consultant, and Transformational Public Speaker. She uses her administrative skills to help her clients be organized and creative works and public speaking engagements to inspire others to live purposeful lives that encourage others to be and make a difference in the world.

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Presently Sangita works as an Administrative Assistant to the Youth Ministry at Swallowfield Chapel in Kingston, Jamaica. She has been working with GTI on a seasonal basis since 2015.

Sangita’s passion and purpose is to inspire others to be and make a difference in the world and she aims to do this with her creative writings and motivational speaking engagements.

Sangita’s philosophy is “Make your presence felt/known in the world. Live. Learn. Grow. Inspire.”

Psalm 139:14 NIV “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made ; your works are wonderful . “

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