Youthaiti

Lakadonie

Admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:31:54 +0000

July 20, 2010< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We are waiting for the second team to arrive in Duchity. I have 2 days of other work preparing for their arrival.

The last day of team 1 we went up to Lakadonie to meet the community of coffee growers. A 45 minute drive up the mountain from Duchity brings you to a small cabin owned by Fred Cheron, our contact with Fondation Espoir-Grande’Anse, a collective of 1501 coffee growers. Almost everything that arrives there arrives by foot – a 2 hour+ walk from Duchity center. Fred helped bring up cement and other equipment for the construction of the new toilet, but sand and water was carried by community members. This has created some significant delays, and unfortunately it does not seem the toilet will be finished before we leave. None-the-less, we will visit again with team 2. We learned about the process of preparing coffee for sale – a process that requires treatment begin the same day as the coffee is picked, and can take 3 days in the mountains before being shipped by truck to Port-au-Prince for final drying to 11% humidity. The whole process is very time sensitive, and requires making sure the coffee is well sorted so hat only the best quality coffee if prepared for export. I hope you all will get a chance to taste La Hotte Coffee which is available through YOUTHAITI (write us at info@youthaiti.org) or at some local Milwaukee Fair Trade stores. After that we hiked down the mountain a bit to visit a small cave and a waterfall and natural pool, where a few of us went for a spontaneous swim! The water was so cool and refreshing, it was the cleanest we have felt since arriving!

We returned to Duchity for a sumptuous dinner of skewers of grilled chicken, beef and vegetables at Fred’s house in Duchity, and then to our final farewell party at “La Fraicheur”, Franci’s bar. Another night of Barbancourt, Prestige and Compa dancing wound up a very busy week for Team 1.

Yesterday should have been a day of relaxation for me. Instead, I rode with Franci on the motorcycle down to Les Cayes and back to meet with a representative from the World Food Program (acronym PAM in French). They are launching programs of “Food for Work”, and we were invited to submit a proposal for a short term project which would employ 200 – 300 people. So today, while we wait for Team 2 to arrive, I will meet with the OJPDD board to discuss the possibilities. This would be a larger project than we have done to date, but the need for sanitation is so great, the requests are coming every day from different communities, it is just a question of can we organize it?

The week will run out before I know it. Soon I will be home with you all again and dreaming and planning of how to continue this important work with people whose needs are so great and enthusiasm for advancement contagious. Thanks for all your support!!

Love

gigi

winding down

Admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:35:02 +0000

July 17

This is Team 1′s last day. The rain poured down this morning after the morning soccer game but before breakfast. We were treated by Fred Cheron to a lovely repast. We’re hoping the rain stays away long enough for us to get up to Lakadonie to visit the coffee growers and see the progress on the latest toilet.

Yesterday we had a wonderful day in Fon Deron where a team was making Arborloo covers. We visited half a dozen homes that are slated to receive the Arborloos. Fon Deron is a beautiful community of coffee farms, avocado and yam plantations. Most everyone had water cisterns, as there wasn’t any piped water in the village. The beauty of the area was really breath-taking, I hope I can post some photos on our return. We asked about hand-washing, and everyone we spoke to seems to understand the importance. The education does seem to be paying off, although actions speak louder than words – we still saw the workers eating with very dirty hands. Each time I travel with a bar of soap and try to model the behavior.

Today Nita got the centrifuge and microscope working. We looked at samples of filtered and unfiltered water, and didn’t see anything particularly ominous, although a very imperfect test. However a sample of compost that has been sitting out since February does appear to have some parasites in it. I hope to run a test on a sample that has remained dry that I was unable to bring home with me in February. It appears we have some work to do to make sure we are promoting safe practices for agriculture.

The work goes on….

kenbe fo!

gigi

July 15, 2010

Admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:58:14 +0000

The days fly by whenever I’m in Haiti. The team arrived almost one week ago and we have been busy every day. We went first to St Louis de Sud, where we took a boat to the community of La Pointe st Nicola. There we inaugurated 2 new public dry toilets in a beach-side community that is unable to dig latrines without hitting water. We were greeted on the beach with singing and excitement. The entire community seemed to be there and there were music and dancing performances – just wonderful! They prepared a banquet of fresh sea food for us before we left. On to Les Cayes and up to Duchity in the dark. Unfortunately we arrived in the car before the truck with our provisions. So while the rest of the team crashed in our house, I waited up for Marcorel with our suitcases and extra mattresses, and the food truck that was delayed from Les Cayes.

Sunday was a rest day with a visit to the Catholic church and the World Cup soccer game on TV in the afternoon. In the evening everyone got a taste of Barbancourt rum and Compa dancing.

Monday back to work! We began making Arborloo covers in Trou Bois, to be distributed next week when another team comes to Duchity. The wood was green and hard to cut into boards with the hand saw, but the forms got made eventually and the cement poured.

Tuesday we inaugurated another toilet in Fon Deron. This time we were greeted by a drum drill team of local youth. Again the whole community seemed to fill the church building where our team taught about use of the dry toilet, including the benefits to agriculture.

Wednesday we walked across the river to Plenn maten to do a bit of work in the garden and help build a new compost pile. The car was getting some repairs and it was a bit of a stretch for some of the team to make the walk, but we all got to experience up close the amazing Haitian countryside, and snack on fresh sugar cane on our way back.

Already it is Thursday, the week is quickly coming to an end. We walked back down to Trou Bois this morning to watch the completion of the Arborloos, and after lunch a few of us walked up towards Les Caves before the rains came. We visited Daphina, a young girl in the community with some motor problems who is learning to walk with a brace and a walker provided by a physical therapist friend from Naperville. Seeing the determination of this severely disabled little girl, and her family who live in a house with a dirt floor and very little furniture, was moving beyond words.

I feel like these few words do not describe at all the pictures and events of the past few days – only the chronology. It is always interesting to me to see Duchity anew through the eyes of newcomers. The market, the mountains, the faces of children begging to have their photo taken – I wish you all could see it yourselves, because I cannot find the words.

We will continue to build toilets and teach people about hygiene and newer methods of agriculture. We will continue to build partnerships in communities clamoring for dry toilets and Arborloos. We will continue to develop friendships that cross cultures and borders and make the world a little smaller and a little better for all of us.

may you all have a good night under the same stars.

gigi

summer in Duchity

Admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:19:00 +0000

The first team arrived on Friday, it seems a long time ago already. Today is only Monday and already they have seen so much. Port au Prince still in shambles, but people struggling to move on with their lives. The amazing Haitian countryside as we travelled by car to St Louis de Sud. We had an amazing welcome by the community of St George. We took a boat with 18 people across the sea to be welcomed by hundreds waiting for us on shore for the inauguration of 2 dry toilets in the community. There were songs and dances and words of gratitude in both directions. And they fed us a feast of fresh fish and lambi (a national food of Haiti) and lobster! Then back acrosss the water in the boat to Les Cayes and up the mountain in the dark to Duchity. Marcorel’s car got a flat tire and we all climbed(squeezed) into the car generously provided by Fred Cheron. We arrived in the night still waiting for our luggage and collapsesd in a heap on the mattresses on the floor.

Sunday was fortunately a day mostly of rest, and dancing at Franci’s bar in the evening. We were refreshed for our work in Trou Bois today to make Arborloos. A bit of disorganization but finally a hard=working team of 17 made 8 Arborloo platforms before the rain came teaming down. Dr Nita and Dr Tom spent the day in the clinic with Dr. Max, the local Cuban-trained Haitian doctor. They were very impressed with his skill and caring.

After showers and a great dinner of bullion (goat soup), a long game of hearts ended the day.

This is the briefest of reports as the electricity will go off soon and the internet is slow. I hope to write more soon.

love

gigi

We are on the move!

Admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:25:14 +0000

Thanks to YOU, our supporters, our first “Unity Makes Strength” benefit dinner was a resounding success!! We had over 150 attendees and raised over $15,000! Everyone enjoyed the Haitian-style food, the Haitian art and crafts, the silent auction and the music by De La Buena. We had guests from Haiti representing the YOUTHAITI board, and our partners from the OJPDD board and Foundation Espoir-Grande’Anse. Videos were going all night illustrating our work. We are ready to plan for next year – soon we will send out a “save the date”!! If you are not on our email list, please contact info@youthaiti.org or click on the link to join.

YOUTHAITI is on the move!

Our work in rural Haiti continues at a furious pace. We currently have 4 projects in process or near completion.

First, our partners in OJPDD (Organization des Jeunes Progressistes pour le Development de Duchity) have completed one public dry composting toilet in the neighborhood of Les Caves, with a great turn out of local residents coming to learn about composting toilets and planning to use the dilute urine in their gardens. (See photos on Flickr.) Our demonstration garden is a little bit away from the toilet, but already bearing it’s first harvest.

In the community of Fon Deron another dry toilet is going into a school that serves over 250 students. A visiting volunteer team will help build Arborloos for families in that community as well this July.

In St Louis de Sud we have launched our second project. In an area only accessible by motorcycle or boat, near the southern coast, we will be building 2 public dry toilets and 50 Arborloos this summer! This is an entire community with currently NO sanitation – not one toilet, which will have complete sanitation coverage by the end of the summer! Our volunteers will visit there also, and help inaugurate the first public toilet. Our staff members, Marcorel Lisius and Gerald Polyte will supervise and provide community education. This is the most isolated area we have touched to date.

A dry toilet is going in up the mountain from Duchity in the community of Lakadonie, where our wonderful La Hotte Coffee is grown. In partnership with Foundation Espoir-Grande’Anse, we will provide organic fertilizer for the coffee trees, and help increase yields to bring you more of that delicious coffee!! Contact us at info@youthaiti.org if you are interested in trying or promoting Fairly-traded, organic coffee from Haiti.

This summer we also will finish planning 2 public dry toilets in the city of Camp Perrin, where many people currently use a dry riverbed as their toilet. When the rain comes, all the waste is washed out, but if the river overflows (which happens when the rains are heavy), it further contaminates the local farms and home steads. We are working with a local group called GRAPE, led by our staff Agronomist, Jean Samuel Alteus.

Alteus just returned from a training in sustainable nutrition through Auburn University in Alabama. He is anxious to apply all his newknowledge to help improve the nutrition of the many peasants we work with in rural Haiti. In August, Alteus will return to the States to take a Permaculture certification course in Wisconsin. Those of you who live in Wisconsin, I hope you’ll have a chance to meet him! He tells me he sings and plays guitar too, so I hope he’ll have a chance to entertain us all!

In July, 2 teams of volunteers will visit Haiti with us. We will inaugurate 3 new toilets, and build 50 Arborloos. We will launch a program of public cleanliness in Duchity with new garbage and recycling cans throughout the village. In addition, volunteers will help test compost for pathogens, work alongside the local doctor in the clinic, teach leadership development to the members of OJPDD and art to some of the younger children in Duchity. We will have a very busy 2 weeks! Maybe some time YOU would like to join us! Contact info@youthaiti.org for more information about future volunteer opportunities that will change your life.

Please watch the website for updated blog entries when we are travelling in Haiti. You can also follow us on Facebook (join our group) and on Twitter @gigipomerantz.

Saturday May 15, 2010 – benefit dinner for YOUTHAITI

Admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:24:22 +0000

SAVE THE DATE!

YOUTHAITI – “Unity Makes Strength”

a benefit for the people of Haiti
in honor of Haitian Flag Day

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Turner Hall Ballroom
Milwaukee, WI

Tickets: $100
Contact: info@youthaiti.org for more information

March 13, 2010 – Upcoming Projects in Grande’Anse

Admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:20:45 +0000

Thanks to recent donations, and especially a grant from the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, we were able to plan 3 new public toilets to be built in the next month. As areas in the countryside absorb internally displaced people, the need for sanitation and increased agricultural production are increased. Every area I visited in Grande’Anse reported hundreds of new people returned to the area. We will build a toilet in Les Caves in conjunction with a seed bed that we started while I was there. We will build a toilet in Fonderon at a parish and school that serves 300 children, and finally, we will build a toilet in the mountain area of Lakadoni, where La Hotte Coffee is grown. In each community we will provide hygiene education and agricultural training in the use of dilute urine as fertilizer, and the development of household vegetable gardens.
I also visited the community of Tozia, about an hour’s walk from Duchity, and did a one day mobile clinic with Dr. Michelet, the local doctor in Duchity. I met the local nurse and the health agent, who are very concerned about the health of their community, and the impact of the lack of sanitation. We will begin conversations with them as well, perhaps beginning with establishing Arborloos and education programs.
I was contacted by groups in Camp Perrin as well, who would like to put in dry toilets for a youth center or school, in an area that has absorbed many internally displaced people.
The need and demand for ecological sanitation is great. Every day we are contacted by communities who are interested. Some times we are able to partner with other organizations to provide funding, but often we are looking for our own resources to help these communities. This is where your support is crucial! We thank you again for your continuing support.

March 3, 2010 – My return from Haiti

Admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:19:41 +0000

As always, I return from Haiti with mixed emotions. Anxious to be home, sad to be leaving. Already looking forward to planning my next trip.

As I try to review for myself the trip as a whole, I’d like to share my thoughts and impressions with you. The first few days were spent in Port-au-Prince – taking in the level of destruction, and the resilience of the Haitian people. I returned there on my way home as well. Little by little the streets are being cleared of rubble, and the city has returned to normal function. Traffic clogs the street, vendors sell everything from clothes to food to toothpaste and art work all along the roadway. People leave the tent camps during the day, searching for work or food or water, and return at night to sleep. Few people sleep inside a building, as the aftershocks continue. Although various aid organizations are trying to plan for the future, and port-a-potties are starting to be seen in various camps around the city, most individuals seem to be living day-to-day, without a real plan about how or when they will move on. Aid still fails to reach many in an organized way. And outside the city, in areas like Leogane that were hit even harder than PAP, it is even slower. Sanitation and waste disposal remain a huge public health concern. I made several connections for possible future work outside of PAP, but the brevity of the trip made substantial planning unrealistic.

In the countryside, especially in Duchity, I continued to hear stories of people that had returned. Young people especially, are struggling with issues of survival and survivor guilt. Not wanting to be a burden on their families, who struggled to pay school fees that are now lost down the drain, yet not having a way to help bring in support. In meetings and personal conversations, I encouraged them to be creative in thinking of how they can find support, and they encouraged me to advocate for them with the outside world – for scholarships and further learning opportunities. I have already had several responses from people on this list and elsewhere of wanting to come teach or help.

I firmly believe the future of Haiti lies in decentralization – of education, governance, production both manufacturing and agricultural. I believe YOUTHAITI can have a role in this by providing work opportunities and teaching agricultural techniques to help improve productivity. Moving from looking strictly at sanitation as a public health issue, to comprehensive programs of health and agriculture training. We have begun this work in earnest in Duchity. There are now 5 functioning toilets and 3 gardens. Our Agronomist, Jean Samuel Alteus, has begun a training program with representatives of the 3 communities we work in, which will be duplicated in other communities as we establish relationships and plan projects. As our resources increase, we will be able to reach more people in more communities.

Your continued support is crucial. Haiti’s natural disaster may be its saving moment. As people focus their attention on its needs, the opportunity for new models of behavior and communities arise. Rescue and clean up from the quake are proceeding. Now is the time to focus on rebuilding. Alteus and our OJPDD Coordinator, Franci Polyte, attended a coalition meeting to Rebuild Haiti. They were the only representatives from the Departments of Grande’Anse and South. They will continue to represent us and the rural communities of these areas, where some of the most fertile soils in the country still exist and the opportunity for agricultural development is perhaps greatest. By combining ecological sanitation solutions with agricultural development, the impact on public health is multiplied.

YOUTHAITI – UNITY MAKES STRENGTH

Gigi — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:40:55 +0000

SAVE THE DATE!

YOUTHAITI – “Unity makes Strength”
Benefit in honor of Haitian Flag Day

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Turner Hall Ballroom
Milwaukee, WI

Tickets: $100
Contact: info@youthaiti.org for more information

Upcoming Projects in Grande’Anse

Gigi — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:33:57 +0000

Upcoming Projects in Grande’Anse