‘Sea You In Seychelles’ - more than just a community project |26 February 2018

A project aimed at training unemployed youth to sew reusable bags to supply a local tourism market has been launched.

The ‘Sea You In Seychelles’ project kicked off on February 20 at the Seychelles Institute of Distance and Open Learning (Sidol), Mont Fleuri.

The workshop was attended by only four young people, including one young man from Corgat Estate, a sub district dubbed as “priority area” following a poverty and equality survey in 2013. The survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics found that around 40 percent of Seychellois were living below the poverty line.

SYAH Seychelles fittingly responded to this issue by developing a project targeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1- ending poverty. The project received a lot of positive feedback from the secretary of state for poverty alleviation Dick Esparon, members of the Corgat Estate task force and local media.

During the last quarter of 2017, Anael Bodwell, the SYAH Seychelles co-founder, and SYAH member Reza Moustache pitched the project before an international delegation attending a regional sustainable tourism conference in Seychelles. Shortly after, SYAH Seychelles was successfully awarded funds to materialise the project.
SYAH Seychelles and its organisers described the pilot project at Sidol as a success despite the limited participation.

They declared that the project will be received widely “once people understand the concept of ‘Sea You In Seychelles’.
Aside from giving young people entrepreneurship skills, the project is also tackling three other key pillars -- socio-economic, environment and tourism.
The project will address poverty alleviation issues with solution-based ideas, reduce the reliance on social welfare and similar assistance, promote the use of reusable bags over plastic carrier bags in the tourism market and promote environment protection.

SYAH Seychelles will be producing a total of 50 reusable bags over the upcoming days, proceeds of which will go towards sustaining the programme.
The workshop is being facilitated by Veronica Moustache who has previously worked with SYAH Seychelles in a similar project.

The bags will be supplied to a local hotel chain who will in turn sell or give these bags to their clients and promote responsible tourism.
SYAH Seychelles, who is yet to reveal the local hotel partner, has however promised the participants a very special certificate-giving ceremony at the hotel’s premises as well as the launch of a promotional video which will feature the participants at work.

During her introductory remarks at the workshop, Ms Bodwell noted that the ‘Sea You In Seychelles’ project is more than just a community project.

“In SYAH Seychelles, we are not just working with statistics - we know these young people and we know their stories, we want to help them,” she said.

Axelle Bodwell
SYAH Seychelles