[dropcap]I[/dropcap][dropcap][/dropcap]n March this year, circulating clips of Saint Lucia’s Folk Research Centre (FRC) engulfed in flames reminded of the pain immobility toward digitization can cause. It is possible that no one felt the loss of 40 years of research going up in flames quite like the FRC co-founder Msgr. Patrick Anthony and current board chairman Hilary La Force. Both have spent the better parts of their lives facilitating programs and expanding the range of operations undertaken by the centre. At time of writing there has been no official declaration of the cause of the fire.
On Tuesday this week four donors came to the organization’s aid. The Caribbean Development Educators, the Saint Lucia Teachers Co-operative, ELKS Credit Union and Winston Henry presented the centre with a total offering of $5,300. The money will go toward rebuilding efforts. The donors said it was important that they handed over the funds this week, Thursday being International Credit Union Day.
Added Msgr. Anthony: “We want to push the ideas of a series of years like lanné danse, lanné bagay Sent Lisi, lanné koudmen and one of the lannés is going to be lanné sousou. That will involve researching our tradition of indigenous financing; not only how they have saved with the credit and co-operative movements but how people can become intelligent fiscal managers.” He said he hopes the funds received on Tuesday will go towards this initiative.
Martina Belizaire, president of the Saint Lucia Teachers Credit Co-operative said: “We all know how devastating it was for Saint Lucians when we heard of the burning down of the Folk Research Center. As a movement and as a sector, we really want to play our part in assisting in its rehabilitation works.”
Hilary La Force highlighted other top priority concerns: “We are working feverishly to get back to normal. One of our major responsibilities is research and development. We completely lost a library and lots of people—Saint Lucians, overseas students, students in Saint Lucia come to the FRC to do research on the wide cultural aspects of Saint Lucia, so rebuilding our library is one of our major concerns. We will also be ensuring we continue with our education programs like the folk academy, where we teach various cultures of Saint Lucia in terms of dance, music, language even cooking.”
It has not been determined when rebuilding works will begin at the FRC’s original location on Cavalry Road. Currently the center’s operations are based within the walls of the Cultural Development Foundation’s facilities on Barnard Hill, Castries.
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