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Haiti is an amazing country. Amidst the poverty of dirt and stone roads, houses made of sticks and rocks, sudden downpours and blazing hot sun, there exists a secret paradise once known as the “pearl of the Antilles”.
Today I experienced what at one time the entire island of Hispaniola probably looked like. We travelled to the town of Leon, near the port city of Jeremie, to visit a toilet installation cosponsored by Caritas. Leon sits in an old forest of mixed exotic fruit trees, many of which I had never seen or heard of before. We wandered the paths of Caritas where there are tree nurseries, animal husbandry and a peaceful presence unlike anywhere I’ve been. Then we walked up the main street of Leon which felt like a page out of an old Western movie with small shops on both sides of a dirt road. At the end of the road is the market. Hundreds of stalls made of sticks sit on the banks of the Grand’Anse River. We saw people bathing and washing clothes near where there was evidence of people using the river bank for their toilet.
In partnership with Caritas and a church in Maryland (sorry I’m blanking on the name), we have helped build an 8 stall urine-diverting toilet which we hope will help people change their behavior from using the river as their toilet.
Tomorrow is a day full of meetings – coffee planters from the mountain top, health agents from the zone hardest hit by cholera, and members of our partner youth organization, OJPDD. Then our final dinner and farewells before we head back to Port au Prince on Wednesday.
More then….
sending love from Haiti
gigi
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Perle des Antilles
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Inauguration of toilet in Tozia
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Every day has been so full, I haven’t had time to send a message. A week has flown by and we have only 2 more days before we return to Port au Prince.
Today was a very exciting day! We inaugurated the new toilet at the National School of Tozia. This area has NO toilets – everyone goes on the ground – what we call open-defecation. And the toll of cholera in the area has been really high.
Today we watched our team explain sanitation and hygiene and engage the community in a discussion of how to protect themselves. People were open to new ideas of ecological sanitation in their homes and communities. This community helped build this toilet by carrying water and rocks up to 3 hours distance to complete the building. Pictures when I get home!
It was an incredible celebration and my mom was a hit! Everyone loves an elder with spunk and energy!
Lori and my mom have been working with the 4th grade at the National School in Duchity on an art and dance project. It is amazing to see them all together. Come to our dinner in April to see some video!!
Tomorrow to Leon, a community near Jeremie (about 2 1/2 hours away) to check on a project we did in collaboration with CRS (Catholic RElief Services).
And Tuesday I hope to meet with representatives of local communities to plan a response to cholera including sanitation and water.
love
gigi
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Duchity march 2012
Coming up the mountain, it felt like coming home. The fresh air, the sites and smells of Duchity, the greetings of friends as we arrived. There is progress on the road almost till you arrive in Duchity, but don’t let it make you complacent – you still need to hold on!
Tuesday Lori and my mom began an art project with the 4th graders at the National school – you’ll have to come to our dinner to see the final product! I met with the health committee to exchange updates and hear about their willingness to provide education to prevent cholera and distribute supplies for water treatment , generously donated by Americares. In the evening we were invited for dinner and enjoyed an evening of laughter and sharing. Today, off to visit Tozia where cholera bared its head in January and we hope to prevent a recurrence with the next rainy season coming in April. More tomorrow… Gigi Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
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last days
Dear friends,don’
My visit to Haiti is rapidly coming to a close. The medical team left yesterday. We had 3 very successful clinics and saw 551 patients. We accompanied 2 patients to the hospital who may have died without this access. We trained 6 traditional birth attendants in danger signs of complications of pregnancy and some techniques they can use to ease a woman’s birth experience.
And we also made many new friends! I don’t want you to have the impression that we are “all work and no play”! Our last day was travelling up the mountain to the small community of Lakadonie, where some of the best coffee is grown. There a volunteer teacher teaches 70 children ages 4 – 8 in a one room “shelter” with only one remaining wall and no roof, with a view many would pay millions for -.We have provided them with a dry toilet there, as the result of the success of selling Haitian coffee, but they continue to need our support to maintain the health and safety of their children and families. We will continue to reach out to them with our hygiene education and our upcoming home composting toilet program. The the team went for a hike and a swim in a natural made pool and waterfall – a highlight of trip!
Now I am in Port-au-Prince at St Joseph’s Family Guest House. I visited Marcorel’s family’s orphanage yesterday, and met with a group from Vermont that is travelling up to Duchity tomorrow. We are exploring ways in which our work can complement each other and ways to help move development in Duchity along. I also met with the members of another Duchity-based youth organization called CLAID (Club Literaire for the Advancement of Duchity) about establishing a library in Duchity. These young people have already drawn up the architectural plan for a building! And I almost forgot, a meeting with Ernst Louis, president of FNJD (National Youth Federation for Development) on building partnerships…
Today I am off to Hinche, on the Central Plateau, to visit my friend, Fr. Fritz, and see another part of the country. One more day of meetings tomorrow, and then I leave for home and the ccccold!
Hope you are all well. Your continuing support of Youthaiti’s work is crucial for us to continue to help provide sanitation and hygiene for thousands of people, and help build the capacity of young Haitians who dream of a better life for themselves and their communities. Thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts.
love
gigi
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2 days of medical clinic
The medical team consisting of a nurse midwife, an ob-gyn doc and a family practice doc arrived in Duchity last Friday. After sorting and organizing 8 suitcases full of medications, they met with the local public health nurse and 6 elderly “matrons”, or lay birth attendants. They shared stories and taught techniques for safer deliveries, as well as danger signs requiring medical attention. As many as 1 in 10 women may die in childbirth in Haiti without access to medical care.
Monday and Tuesday we began our clinics, working alongside Dr. Vanette, the newly hired Haitian doctor in Duchity. She began her first day alongside us! We saw many infections, and did some cervical cancer screening and family planning along with several dozen prenatal visits. I worked with Susan in the pharmacy, explaining to patients how and why to take their medication, while giving explanations of how to do solar disinfection of their water, a practice known as SODIS. Cholera is still active in the area (although we have not seen any cases yet), and a careful review of hygiene was also done when people got their meds.
In between these activities I have been encouraging to use of composting toilets and a model of a sanItation business, to encourage an entrepreneurial business. Only when toilets are really valued in the community, and accessible to all, will they be widely used and have a significant health impact. But every journey starts with the first step.
Tomorrow is our last clinic day before we visit some local ‘hot spots’ and return to Port au Prince. More later…
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Week 1 – electricity for Duchity?
Dear friends,
Every trip to Duchity is a discovery – of the amazing strength and faith of the Haitian people. This trip began with a partnership with engineers from Illinois and Puerto Rico who are partnering with Youthaiti to explore ways to improve the lives of the people in Duchity by providing reliable electricity. Currently we are lucky if we have 4 hours of electricity in the evening, because the generator is old and needs parts replaced. Often if flickers and then goes off. I’m taking advantage of a full charge last night to get this message out to you.
Several members of the community have been volunteering daily to accompany the engineers on exciting hikes down and into the river Glace to see where power could be captured for a micro-hydroelectric project. To see how they have mobilized their meager resources is remarkable.
We also met with the water committee to learn that for 2 weeks there was no water arriving in the village and evryone had to walk long distances to get water from the river. Pipes that are over 25 years old have broken letting the water flow out. Again a completely volunteer team of locals spent one week in the rain, borrowing money for parts, to repair the pipes and assure that people could access water more easily. Still no potable water, but without water there is no life, said Franci Polyte, our Coordinator in Grand’Anse.
Our technicians have plans to relaunch several of our public toilets to provide more community education and awareness, as well as create a small business providing handwashing services. We hope to launch our “sanitation as a business” model at the same time.
Yesterday we visited the sites of our mobile clinics. They will be challenging, to say the least. Tozia is a community almost an hours drive from Duchity down unpaved roads. There is no electricity and no water piped there. There is not even phone reception. But there are trees!! It is a little paradise hidden in the mountains. With hundreds of people who never get health care. We will set up in a church building that has 4 walls and a roof, but no floor, and little light. Good thing we all have flash lights!! We will carry all our materials with us – and back out again. More about that after….
Susan and I have been warmly welcomed ‘home’ and look forward to the arrival of the medical team from Aurora UW Medical Group.
keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we serve the people of Duchity.
love
gigi
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Back in Duchity
Dear all- After a very long travel day beginning at 4 am, we are back in Duchity. We arrived to a warm welcome and a delicious hot meal. I travelled with our treasurer, Susan Maiers and 2 engineers working with Youthaiti on a hydroelectric proposal for Duchity. Our greatest gift was to see a large part of the road after Camp Perrin now paved! Those who have been here wull recognize what an accomplishment this is, although near Duchity itself work has not really started. Well, we have full 2 weeks ahead of us including Youthaiti’s first medical mission, which will focus on women’s health and hygiene.
More later. Please drop a line to gigi@youthaiti.org.
Love Gigi Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
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Almost home
Dear friends,
An eventful, busy 2 weeks has come to a close and I am “transitioning” in Florida with my mom. She cannot stop talking about her experiences in Haiti, and her desire to return! I arrived at noon yesterday and at 4:30 I was already making a presentation to a large group of her friends!
Over 3 short days, Chris Papadapolous and Marcel Castro, 2 engineering professors from the University of Puerto Rico, visited Duchity to study potential projects in collaboration with Youthaiti. We discussed ways to improve our toilet construction with small projects that might be undertaken with students. More exciting however, was a preliminary study of the potential for hydro-electric power to serve all of Duchity. We hiked down to the Glace River through terrain that gave a hint of what all of Haiti must have looked like once. Grand’Anse is an area that still retains many of its trees, unlike much of the rest of Haiti which has been largely deforested. Over the years trees have been cut down to provide charcoal and livelihoods to people in the countryside. We saw many instances of that continuing in our area, and each one broke my heart. I hope that Youthaiti will be able to discourage that practice by providing people with fruit trees to provide income when they use their Arborloos. But I digress.
The Glace River was nowhere near its peak, as the rainy season has not yet started (although we had rain almost daily!). A sufficient flow and a 39 meter waterfall set the stage for a potential project that could change the lives of thousands by providing reliable current. Now they will begin to explore feasability, environmental impact and funding!!
We visited the market and the schools, bringing Chris to tears. We learned of the huge challenges facing the children and the educators who know that education is the only key out of the trap of poverty. In the public primary school there are 80 children in the fifth grade and only ONE teacher! Novel teaching methods are impossible in such a situation! Yet the children learn with discipline, and we see the hope and aspirations in their eyes. So many dream of finishing high school and opportunities to study at university which are beyond their reach. We strive to bring whatever resources we are able to them through our projects that might enhance their learning opportunities.
Ever day in Duchity we are all continually moved by the gracious hospitality of our Haitian hosts. Not a day goes by without them reaching out in many ways to see to all our needs. Despite the lack of electricity, or running water, we had 3 delicious meals each day, all our needs met with loving care. Each visitor was sent off with a handmade gift in token of appreciation for our presence.
On our way back to Port-au-Prince we visited the teaching garden established in Les Cayes by our Agronomist, Jean Samuel Alteus. It is so rewarding to see him applying techniques he learned while studying Permaculture in Wisconsin last summer! I hope to post some photos to our Flickr page soon. The future of Haiti is in our hands! I can already see it blooming again!
As always, I must say it is thanks to you, our many supporters of Youthaiti, that we are able to be partners in this rewarding work. The problems of Haiti sometimes seem so immense, and yet little by little we are helping one community transform back into the paradise it once was.
I hope to see you all at our fund-raising benefit on Friday May 13 at the Milwaukee County Zoo. It will be an opportunity to meet some of our partners face to face, and see photos of our work over the past year. I know you will be moved by their stories.
a la pwochenn (until next time)
love
gigi
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One week behind me, one week to go
Dear friends,
My first week of this visit is winding down. Mom and I have settled into Matthew 25 guesthouse in Port au Prince for her last night here. Our visit has been punctuated every day by exciting rides through the mountains, with amazing views across the southern peninsula of Haiti. We had great weather all week – an hour of rain many days, but then clear skies and cool evening
I am very encouraged by the response to the idea of a sanitation business selling arborloos in the duchity area. After initial trepidation, all the people I have spoken to have responded positively to investing in sanitation to protect their health and the health of their families. Our partners in Duchity will now begin to work on completing some models, a pricing structure and a marketing plan. Hopefully by my next visit this model will be operational.
We visited the community of Fon Deron where we launched a dry toilet and some arborloos last summer. It was wonderful to see the care they are taking of it – so clean you could lamost eat inside it! And the garden was flourishing, using urine on the cabbage and yams.
The Arborloos need some adjustments – like covers and adjustments of the pits, but most importantly, the are being used.
Cholera has abated in the Duchity area – thanks in part to our extensive education program which people thanked us for. But we are all aware that the rains can bring an upsurge, and our work is far from over.
Franci got his visa to come to Milwaukee for our dinner in May. We are still hoping that Jonette , an auxilliary nurse and head of the health committee of OJPDD will also be able to join us, as I hope all of you are planning to do. Mark your calenders – Friday May 13, and write us to let us know you’ll join us!!
More next week when 2 engineers from the University of Puerto Rico join me in Duchity!!
a pita – (until later)
gigi
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Duchity during Carnival
Dear Friends of Youthaiti,
The first week of March in Haiti is an exciting time – Carnival!
Although we are in the countryside and not Port-au-Prince where the really big festivities are happening, we have seen ra-ra bands up and down the roads throughout the countryside. People have taken to the streets in numbers you would not believe!!
We have visited several of our toilet installations and found them in good working order and much appreciated. We continue our youth development work including learning what dreams motivate them. In this way, we hope to work with them in discovering ways to fulfill these dreams. Many dream of communities where everyone has access to sanitation and clean water, everyone has enough to eat and good health. The other focus of our work now is leadership development. We began a leadership development training for our local partners to help build skills in organizational development. This will help us build capacity.
I’m sure many of you wonder how my mother’s visit is going. At an undisclosed age, she is much venerated by the young people we work with. I hope she will share her impressions with you when she returns to Florida on Saturday. But I believe her view of life will never be quite the same.
Internet time is running out, I hope to write more when I am in Port-au-Prince this weekend.
Your ongoing support makes all the difference. I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in May at our dinner and introducing you to our representatives from Haiti.
a bientot (until later)
gigi
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