Leogane, Haiti – Saturday, June 5, 2010

Before the project you could sell one dozen mango for 5 gourdes, now you can get 37 to 40 gourdes per dozen about $1 US. — Belizer Joseph Clenol “Ti Nol”

We left Port-au-Prince for the countryside following along the fault line of the earthquake to Leogane.  It was the epicenter of the earthquake, a community of 100,000 people where an estimated 30,000 perished in the disaster and almost all of its buildings were destroyed.  It is also home to a mango plantation of 35,000 mango trees benefitting some 500 area farmers.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Ti Nol, a mango farmer in Leogane and “keeper” of the plantation.  He is a member of the farming cooperative that began planting mangoes there in 1989.  The organization was part of a multi-year, countrywide development project to improve mango quality and production for export (Haiti – Hillside Agricultural Program).

As we followed Ti Nol on the narrow, dirt footpaths that crisscrossed the hillsides, we were joined by other farmers who have trees on the plantation.  As we listened, their pride in their work was clear.  They explained how sales have improved, how they used the land for companion planting and how community members were planting, rather than cutting the trees down, in turn combating one of Haiti’s biggest environmental problems – deforestation.

With 10 million mango trees throughout the country, mangoes are the country’s second largest export benefitting thousands of farmers. During our visit, we discovered that Whole Foods had recently been in the country to buy Haiti’s mango Fransik, the preferred mango for export, and that Odwalla had recently launched a juice made with Haitian mango with profits donated back to development efforts in Haiti.  Private sector investments like these that support rural agriculture in Haiti are necessary for the country’s post earthquake recovery.  Jobs in the countryside will help efforts to decentralize Haiti and move people out of the city.  In addition, income-generating fruit trees, like the mango, will help slow deforestation and increase farmer incomes, providing much needed funds for food, health care and education.

I want to use my medical training and organizational skills to reform Haiti’s healthcare system. — Theodule Jean Baptiste

Haiti has one doctor for every 10,000 people.  That was before the earthquake.

On January 12, Haiti’s fledgling health care infrastructure was destroyed in 35 seconds.  Hospitals and health clinics in Port-au-Prince crumbled to the ground burying doctors and nurses and leaving millions of Haitians without access to medical care when they needed it most.

Theodule was one of the 600,000 who fled the city following the disaster.  The Haitian Education & Leadership Program (HELP) center where he was living was destroyed, two of his fellow students were killed and staff and several other students were injured.

Theodule, 24, is a fifth-year medical student at Haiti’s state university.  Consistently on the honor roll, Theodule would not be pursuing his dream to become a doctor without the support of HELP, a US-based non-profit and Haiti’s largest university-level scholarship program.

Having survived the disaster, Theodule worked as an emergency relief volunteer.  By day, he helped establish a temporary HELP center for its students and staff made homeless by the earthquake.  At night, he worked as a volunteer medical translator and doctor’s assistant at the J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO) Hospital in the Petionville Club tent camp, home to 50,000 people displaced by the earthquake.  He volunteered 6 nights a week, working 12-hour shifts.

One year after the earthquake, Theodule is back in school, living in student housing provided by HELP and doing his rotation at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.  A reality that would not have been possible without the support of the Haitian Education and Leadership Program.

Theodule is on of 150 university students supported by HELP, and one of 20 medical students sponsored by program. They are the future.  The future doctors, nurses, accountants and teachers of Haiti. To learn more about HELP visit uhelp.net.

With 10 gourdes of charcoal you can make food for the whole day. – Josanie LaFortune

It’s about 9 a.m. and  Josanie LaFortune sits in front of her tent in the Internally Displaced Persons camp she now calls home.  Her “home” is located in the Cineas tent camp in Port-au-Prince where she cares for her three grandchildren.  On some days, she houses as many as six family members in the 8 x 8 space that is held together with pieces of rope and telephone cord. 

On this morning, Josanie is already preparing the day’s meal, a small pot of rice and beans. Like her new neighbors, Josanie and her family lost everything in the earthquake.  However, Josanie is one of 200 families to receive a fuel-efficient StoveTec Rocket stove from Trees, Water & People (TWP); stoves that have been provided to families struggling to rebuild their lives after the earthquake.

Rocket stoves given to families like Josanie’s immediately following the disaster have helped alleviate immediate suffering.  Not only does the stove allow her the simple luxury of cooking food to feed her family every day, but it also allows her to prepare food faster and with less charcoal at a cost savings of 40 percent on the purchase of her cooking fuel.

In a country that suffers from one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world with less than 1.4 percent forest cover remaining, and where 54 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day, fuel-efficient technologies, like the Rocket stove, offer significant, long-term health, environmental and economic benefits for years to come.  The stoves use 40 to 50 percent less fuel and reduce emissions by 50 to 75 percent, resulting in less trees being cut for charcoal production, protecting the environment and reducing the amount of money families spend to buy charcoal to prepare food on a daily basis. 

TWP and its partner organizations in Haiti have distributed over 1,500 stoves throughout PAP since the earthquake.  Together, they are working to distribute these high-efficiency cook stoves to families affected by the earthquake with the long-term goal to establish a stove factory and distribution network for the stoves in Haiti.

Click here to learn more about Trees, Water & People and their work in Haiti.  Click here to learn more about StoveTec Rocket Stoves.

 I have a family. I need work. I just want to work.  — John Demarais

Barefoot and shirtless, John digs through a mountain of rubble.  It was the site of the Caribbean Market, one of the country’s largest retail supermarkets and where an estimated 100 people perished and remain buried in the collapsed four-story building. 

We asked what he was digging for.  “I am looking for anything I can use or sell…  I have a family. I need work. I just want to work,” responded John Demarais.

On this day, John was joined by 10 other men.  Most dug by hand, some had tools.  They toiled in the heat of Haiti’s unforgiving mid-morning sun searching for food items or other goods and materials that could be consumed or resold to generate income for their families.

Nearly six months after the earthquake, the site had been picked over, not much remained for them to salvage except for twisted pieces of rebar that they could claim and resell on the street. 

As we stood listening to their personal stories, all they asked us for was clean water to drink.