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A14 LOCAL
Friday 16 February 2018

Social Entrepreneur James Ocalia in Cooperation with HopeAruba Movement:
‘Sustainable Agriculture for Healthier Locals and Rehabilitated Drug Addicts’

The plants are seeded and grown in the nursery, built by the students, and when strong
enough they are transferred to the land. “So far we sell only to individuals that come to
the house. That goes amazingly well. In the future we would like to sell to supermarkets
and hotels.” James works every day on the land with his men, from 1 to 5pm. “Two of
them are above 50 years old. It is intensive as for me as it is the first time I work with ad-
dicts. I started with this crew two weeks ago and already learned that I need to be strict
and clear. They are different in their approach of life, this is like teaching life again as
you do the same to children.”

Cultural Dishes
HopeAruba is a national platform for Civic Synergy that began this project two months
ago. The professional caregivers, the couple Shannon and Shawn Blankenship from the
United States, live on the premises with their children and work according to the pro-
gram Teen Challenge. James: “They are here to set up the program for a year and also
screen the participants. Hope is a movement, a collaboration of foundations, compa-
nies and volunteers that sets up social projects where there is need in society. People
here tend to signal social problems and point towards the government, but Hope wants
to act upon themselves and make a difference.”
Continued on Page 15

One of the students proudly shows ‘his crop.’
ALTO VISTA - Somewhere uphill in Alto Vista you will find a
beautiful piece of land with an old, white, traditional cu-
nucu house on it, dating from 1923. Nothing remarkable
about that, you might think, as there are many of these
old aunties scattered around the island. But this one has
an amazing background story. Aruba Today visited the
place on a warm, sticky afternoon where James Ocalia
was working on the land with a handful of other men.

‘Cas Speransa Nobo’ is the name on the sign of the old
cunucu house. It refers to the new hope that is there for The four students together with their teacher James (second of left).
the students of the rehabilitation program that is run here.
“We call them students rather than drug addicts or clients
because they have chosen to learn another life. Their ad-
dict life is their past, the goal is to learn and graduate in
a new life.” The Aruban James explains that he runs his
company –Goshen, which means ‘inundated land’ - with
the help of the men that are part of the rehabilitation pro-
gram. “They learn to cultivate local crops and it works in
two ways. For them it is a subject they learn and a daily
goal in life, for me it is exercising my job and doing some-
thing good for my island at the same time.”

Fair Harvest
While we are walking on the land the students are en-
thusiastically showing their plants, inviting Aruba Today’s
journalist to taste a concomber chikito. The pride in their
smiling faces is moving and there is definitely something
magical in the air. Maybe it is best described as pure: the
land, the taste of the veggies, the drive of the students
and the sincerity of James - all together it is ‘Hope’ in-
deed. On the 7,000m2 land only local crops are grown:
concomber chikito (cucumber), yambo (okra), bonchi
(beans) and pica (hot peppers) form the main produc-
tion. But one can also find patia (watermelon) and drag-
on fruit as well as moringa. “But these are not for commer-
cial use yet,” they share. Working on the land.