BOUTON SCHOOL BENEFITS FROM GERMAN SMALL GRANTS SCHEME
If ever you wonder which school has the best view on island, then visit the Bouton Combined School near Soufriere. The school was recently able to benefit from a small grants scheme available through the German Embassy in Port of Spain. The application was facilitated by the German Honorary Consul on Saint Lucia, Mrs Karolin Troubetzkoy and resulted in the construction of a new school kitchen and dining room for the 95 students. During his recent visit to the island, German Ambassador Mr. Stefan Schlueter together with Mrs Troubetzkoy was able to view the project first hand and meet with the students and principal Bernadette Southwell.
The Small Grants Scheme of the German Embassy – as part of the technical cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and developing countries – was first introduced in 1980 . The scheme’s main objective is to improve the social and economic situation of population groups who require small amounts of financial aid in initiating „self-help“ projects. Eligible groups can be governmental or non-governmental organizations, cooperatives or associations and the project size is limited to Euro 25.000 per project. Interested parties, who fulfill the General Qualification Rules, can submit their application with a detailed budget showing how the money is to be spent and the respective pro-forma-invoices of the material to be purchased to the German Embassy or the German Honorary Consul in their country. Application forms can be obtained from the Embassy or be downloaded from the website www.port-of-spain.diplo.de