New doors to Future Centre

A CHANGE for the future.This is how the opening of the new Future Centre Trust (FCT) Resource Centre at Edgehill, St Thomas, has been described by chairman Vivian-Anne Gittens.Speaking on Tuesday evening as the FCT threw open its new, but smaller doors at Edgehill,Gittens who is also the publisher and chief executive officer of the Nation Publishing Company, said the facility was a redesign of direction and should augur a “new phase in the realm of environmental education in Barbados”.“The opening of this new, but smaller location signifies a change in direction for the Future Centre Trust, a direction which focuses more on outreach and our being in communities to help them become more aware of their impact on the environment and the limited resources that are available to all of us,” Gittens added.Speaking to an audience that included  Senator Dr Frances Chandler, deputy public affairs officer of the United States embassy, Dr Joseph Schaller, and chairman of Counterpart Caribbean, Dr Basil Springer, Gittens said the organisation’s work over the past 12 months had been centred around project implementation, like its tree-planting activities and its annual Clean Up Barbados campaign, as well as “cementing a strategic vision” on which the organisation could work.Nicole Garofano, administrative  director of the Future Centre Trust, explained the rationale behind the scaled-down new home.She noted that while the original location had become synonymous with its past director Dr Colin Hudson, funding from partners played a major role in the Trust’s decision to downgrade.“We refocused, we reenergised and we decided we would look for a smaller location and we didn’t have to look very far,” she said.Meanwhile, British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Paul Brummell, said the High Commissioner was keen to continue its partnership with the Future Centre Trust.Presenting a map, prepared by the United Kingdom’s meteorological office, which shows the impact of a four-degree rise in temperature on the world, Brummell stressed that the global community needed to work together to prevent such a rise.“We do not want a four-degree rise in temperature,” he stressed.