Giving Rural People the Opportunity to Thrive. Member Spotlight: Roslyn Williams George
Roslyn Williams George “always had a soft spot for people who faced challenges.” They would be drawn to her as a shoulder to lean on, and Roslyn would be more than happy to listen. Listening, after all, is a skill, and Roslyn has it in spades. She notes how it is important to meet people where they are and truly understand what they need. And once Roslyn identifies a need, she is going to do something about it.
Roslyn has taken her aptitude for creative problem solving and applied it on a grand scale in Trinidad and Tobago. As the president of Cashew Gardens Community Council, she works tirelessly to implement environmental and economic projects across her community. Cashew Gardens is a labor of love, requiring constant reevaluation and invention to remain resilient.
Cashew Gardens is a low income housing development in Trinidad. When the government was unable to secure sufficient funding, the community remained underdeveloped and eventually fell into disrepair, with no plans for future improvement. Roslyn, however, envisioned something more.
She chose to partner with international NGOs in order to ensure resources for Cashew Gardens. However, this meant engaging in the long and difficult process of applying for grants. Roslyn stresses how Trinidad and Tobago being an oil rich island makes it much harder to receive such funding. It continues to be an uphill battle to advocate for Cashew Gardens on a global scale.
Despite these challenges, Roslyn has overseen the creation of four extraordinary projects in her local community. The first was the Greenhouse, established in 2012. When husbands went to work and children to school, many women were alone at home. Cashew Gardens partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to teach women how to plant in grow boxes, fertilize and produce a variety of crops. The women were paid a salary for their efforts, helping them to support their families. The profits from selling the garden’s harvest built the second project: the Community Homework and Activity Center.
The Center was created to support the local children. It provides computers and internet access to assist schoolchildren with their homework and holistic learning. The Center also organizes camps and community outings for children whose families might otherwise not be able to afford such activities. And when the children partnered with the Adopt a River program and began testing the local waterways for purity levels, they became aware of how polluted it was. This inspired the third Cashew Gardens project in 2015.
The Recycling and Composting Program is especially near to Roslyn’s heart. She is passionate about waste management and environmentalism, speaking about the importance of respecting the land you occupy regardless of income level. Sustainability is everyone’s job, and it begins in the home she emphasizes. The Program teaches about recycling and provides bins for easy collection. Then, a partner organization takes the plastic to a recycling plant.
In the future, Roslyn would like to engage the youths in the community to use their creativity and create upcycle products for sale. That way, the profits can turn Cashew Gardens into a more self-sustaining model. It is Roslyn’s dream to make the non-profit as independent as possible–and able to pay its own bills and salaries for volunteers.
The most recent Cashew Gardens project is the Community Green Market, which won the 2025 MBBI Project of the Year. The Market is a space for local merchants to sell fresh produce and handmade goods. Importantly, the Green Market brings together Trinidadians and Venezuelan refugees, helping to create positive peace between these two groups.
In 2024, MBBI hosted a peace program for this very purpose. Trinidadians and Venezuelans came together for a workshop series to learn peacebuilding skills. There was a 100% graduation and participation rate, a promising step forward for better integrating this refugee population.
Roslyn didn’t always dream of a career in community peacebuilding. She grew up as the youngest child of a single parent. Roslyn’s mother cleaned offices in the evening and would often bring Roslyn with her to work. In the quiet, sleek calm of the empty offices, Roslyn would sit at desks pretending to be a secretary. However, once she actually became a secretary, the reality was quite different. Roslyn found herself drawn to dynamic, on-the-ground work instead. She took courses in project management, conflict resolution and social work, thus discovering her true passion in the community.
Roslyn’s desire is to expand the model of Cashew Gardens into other rural communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Many potential investors don’t entirely understand this model–that is, that there are alternative routes to empowering people in rural communities. Not everyone follows a predictable path of school to a job and family. When circumstances intervene, Roslyn hopes Cashew Gardens can be a steady source of support for everyone along the way.
A quasi-slogan for Cashew Gardens is, “For the community, by the community, and with the right partnerships.” Roslyn stresses that “Even though we live in a rural place and may not have all the resources that urban people have, we can still find ways to create economic opportunities in the community and support the people who live here.” Roslyn’s commitment to this cause shines through all the roadblocks she has faced along the way. For 13 years and counting, Cashew Gardens has been a beacon of positivity, promoting sustainable development and actionable peacebuilding.
Article by Elsie Aleck, MBBI Writer