The sun peeks over modest hills in the North Coast village of Grande Riviere. Fishermen are hauling their gear up on the beach having just returned from a long night trawling the rolling depths. It is 6:00am and their bones and backs are weary.
As morning light inches its way across the land, farmers are already out in force, tending their crops before the sun’s fierce sting beats them back into the shade. They aren’t the only ones out to work.
An intermittent mechanized buzzing rises and falls with gusting coastal breezes. This is the rowdy rhapsody of CEPEP equipment taming the undergrowth on forest-darkened country roads. CEPEP crews advance so steadily along the winding roads and plunging gullies that you might not even see them. All that lingers is the smell of fresh cut grass and the work left in their wake.
CEPEP and the multiplier effect
This far flung community was born an agricultural settlement. In the mid-to-late 1800s at the coronation of cocoa, Grande Riviere cultivated this lucrative crop, attracting those with soil in their veins from as far as Venezuela. With the decline of the cocoa industry, though, the fortunes of this rustic community shifted dramatically.
As morning light inches its way across the land, farmers are already out in force, tending their crops before the sun’s fierce sting beats them back into the shade. They aren’t the only ones out to work.
An intermittent mechanized buzzing rises and falls with gusting coastal breezes. This is the rowdy rhapsody of CEPEP equipment taming the undergrowth on forest-darkened country roads. CEPEP crews advance so steadily along the winding roads and plunging gullies that you might not even see them. All that lingers is the smell of fresh cut grass and the work left in their wake.
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| An early bird CEPEP worker |
CEPEP and the multiplier effect
This far flung community was born an agricultural settlement. In the mid-to-late 1800s at the coronation of cocoa, Grande Riviere cultivated this lucrative crop, attracting those with soil in their veins from as far as Venezuela. With the decline of the cocoa industry, though, the fortunes of this rustic community shifted dramatically.
Today, subsistence farming and fishing continue on as important occupations for residents. The CEPEP programme has, however, become a significant element of life in this rugged coastal outpost.
Small, colourful ‘parlours’ punctuate the narrow road snaking its way through Grande Riviere. They appear like bamboo stands on a river bank. In no small measure, it is the purchasing power of CEPEP workers, humble folks able to earn their living neither in the sea nor soil, that sustains the pulse of family-run mini-marts and shops.
Giving hope to new generations
If you take a closer look at the CEPEP worker, it’s easy to see how profoundly the programme touches people in countryside communities. The majority of these workers are single mothers. CEPEP is a valuable social intervention which allows these women flexible working hours not readily offered in other places.
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| Women make up a large part of the CEPEP workforce |
A mother can see her children off to school at the bus stop, pick up an early morning shift, meet her charges as they are released from classes in the afternoon and put food on the table for them; food purchased with a CEPEP wage. These children are free to focus on their studies with crucial parental guidance. Armed with an education, these children represent a break in the cycle of poverty.
Thanks to the intervention of the CEPEP programme, new generations liberated from socio-economic difficulties give rural communities real hope for the future.
CEPEP provides much needed jobs in towns and villages where public and private sector work is scarce. It affords income-earning opportunities to areas almost severed from the rest of society by virtue of distance.
The sun sets on another day in Grande Riviere. A mother whispers her children to sleep after they’ve completed their homework, homework she never had a chance to do as a child. She can rest her head knowing that, for her children, the future will be different. They won’t have to travel the road of struggle and disappointment she faced in her youth.
This is the promise that The CEPEP Company Limited gives to those struggling to find direction in life. It is a doorway to hope and a chance at a better life.
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