Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet is among the nominees for the 37th Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Media Awards, after submitting entries in two Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Champion categories.
The Barbados-based creative enterprise entered the competition for SDG Champion – Radio and SDG Champion – Digital, putting forward work that demonstrates how crochet and creative engagement can be used to communicate sustainability issues in accessible and relatable ways.
The Caribbean Broadcasting Union Media Awards recognise excellence in journalism, broadcasting, digital media and content creation across the Caribbean. The 2026 awards include categories covering radio, television, print, digital media, environmental reporting, arts and culture, child rights, financial literacy and other areas of media and content production.
The 2026 CBU Media Awards attracted 683 entries across 63 categories, with participating organisations and practitioners representing 16 Caribbean countries and territories. There were 249 nominated entries.
For Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet, the significance of the nominations goes beyond the possibility of winning an award. The nomination itself says that the work was seen, considered and deemed worthy of a place among the finalists.
Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet chose to participate in the SDG Champion category because the organisation’s work has increasingly connected crochet with environmental education, community engagement and sustainable development. Its initiatives have explored issues including climate action, life below water, youth engagement, entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods.
The radio submission was an 11-minute, 34-second interview on WINN FM’s Island Tea Morning Show. The discussion explored the connections between SDG 13, Climate Action; SDG 14, Life Below Water; and SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, using a Saint Kitts engagement to demonstrate how creative industries can contribute to environmental awareness and sustainable economic participation.
The digital submission was the feature “Crocheting with Sustainability in Mind”, published on the Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet website on April 1, 2025. The article documented that Barbados-based engagement that integrated SDG education into a hands-on creative activity, using crochet to introduce participants, particularly youth, to sustainability concepts and their relevance to Caribbean communities.
The decision to enter the awards was driven by the belief that the work belonged within a wider conversation about how the SDGs are communicated. By using a familiar creative practice, Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet seeks to make complex sustainability issues easier to understand while connecting environmental awareness with creativity, skills development and economic participation.
In the SDG Champion – Radio category, Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet is nominated alongside NBC St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Starcom Network of Barbados. In SDG Champion – Digital, the other nominees are Nation Publishing of Barbados and Starcom Network.
For Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet, the nomination provides an opportunity to place a creative enterprise alongside established regional media organisations and to demonstrate how creative practice can contribute to development communication.
The next stage is the judging of the eligible entries against the awards criteria. For the SDG Champion category, the criteria focus on how effectively entries connect global goals to people’s lives, use accessible language and local examples, incorporate diverse voices, present factual and data-informed perspectives, and highlight solutions as well as challenges.
The winners will be announced at the 37th CBU Media Awards Gala during the CBU’s 57th Annual General Assembly in Georgetown, Guyana, from August 17–19, 2026.
For Elaine’s Caribbean Crochet, the journey from a crochet-based creative enterprise to an official CBU Media Awards nominee reflects the organisation’s continued exploration of how creativity can be used to educate, communicate and inspire action around issues that matter to Caribbean communities.
The nomination is now the beginning of the next stage: seeing how the work measures against some of the region’s established media and content producers.