The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is a project under the umbrella of the YWCA Cambridge, an NGO based in the United States.The purpose of the Haiti initiative is to support Haitians in (the Southern region of) Haiti around hurricane preparedness and climate change.
The Haiti Initiative’s goals are to create spaces to educate the public about climate change, to support with hurricane preparedness, and to work with activists in Haiti.
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is comprised mostly of members of the Haitian diaspora in the US and in France. Our focus is on outreach to existing non-profits, Haiti-based associations, small companies, and commune / municipal governments. We do this by keeping a database of the folks we are in contact with, organizations doing work on the environment in Haiti, and folks working on environmental education. We put NGOs in contact with others who are working on similar issues or share similar strategies. We arrange meetings between the organizations we work with. To understand our strategy to working in Haiti, we recommend reading the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti’s article, entitled Cheaper, Better, Longer-Lasting: A Rights- Based Approach to Disaster Response in Haiti. This articulates our concerns regarding NGOs and corporations in Haiti; it reads like a how-to-guide for working in Haiti. The most crucial part of our strategy is that we leverage our resources abroad to support projects in Haiti. Our focus is on environmental issues in Haiti, but this spills over into many aspects of everyday life in Haiti. We are blessed with large networks of wealthy friends and access to funding bodies. We have decided to become the bridge between these resources and folks doing work in Haiti. For each of our projects in Haiti, we work directly with partner organizations in Haiti. As much as possible, we try NOT to be the ones seen as bringing the solution. We work with people already engaged solutions and we work to amplify their voices (sending petitions to the government, publishing articles, circulate calls for supplies). At our conferences we provide physical spaces for people to share their work and present challenges. We are not the facilitators at these conferences. We are not the educators at the conferences. We are attendees and participants. We are upfront about our concerns, challenges, and limitations.
In October 2016, a massive hurricane flooded the southern peninsula of Haiti further strangling an already economically challenged area. Family members called on their relatives abroad for help. Cambridge has and continues to be the home a large Haiti community. Many of the residents, including Marie Nirva Tancyl, received one such call. Her panicked relatives in Les Cayes and Arniquet needed help quickly, so Nirva wrote a message to the editor of the Cambridge Chronicle. The message was published in the newspaper. Cambridge residents flocked to the aid of their Haitian descended community members. Cambridge residents donated over $1000 to ship eight barrels of food and supplies to Haiti. The Haiti Initiative sprung out of that initial project. Since then, the YWCA Cambridge has become support fiscal pass-through agent for all donations. The Haiti Initiative is working directly with local municipal governments in Haiti to provide aid to people in rural villages and towns throughout the south. In July 2017, a small delegation of four visited the rural villages of Chantal, Port Salut, Torbeck and Arniquet. The people of those villages had asked for support with electricity because the electric company had trouble reaching the rural towns after the hurricane. The flooding had made the roads and bridges impossible to cross. During the July 2017 visit, the delegation brought funds for the installation of the four solar panel posts; as well as computers, printers and other electronic equipment to support local businesses, schools and non-profit organizations. In August 2017, the mayor of Arniquet, Maurice Chateau, visited Cambridge. At a small gathering at the YWCA Cambridge, he explained the many challenges fiscal and otherwise, of running a rural village in the politically and economically poor country of Haiti. He emphasized climate change is the biggest challenge facing the people of the village. In February 2018, a small delegation of five went back to Les Cayes and organized a conference on climate change organized my deputy Joseph Pierre Serge. The Haiti Initiative was able to raise $1000 towards the February conference. In addition to attending the conference, the delegation visited Arniquet, Ile la Vache, and Torbeck to discuss the local impacts of climate change on the southern region of Haiti with politicians, grassroots activists, and NGO workers. Upon our return from the February delegation, the core group of organizers have been growing out network in the Boston area. The aim to inform West Indian Americans with knowledge about climate change and how it will impact the caribbeans. The larger goal is to prepare responses to mobilize teams with support for Haiti-based activists.
Stephanie Guirand (She/Her) is a Haitian-American woman who grew up in Cambridge, MA. Stephanie has interned at UNESCO and the ANC Partnership Archives at the University of Connecticut and has worked with a number of nonprofits. She has a background in fundraising. She is a co-founder of Daughters of Yemaya Collective (DYC), an arts activism collective comprised young women of African descent. The Project Manager is responsible for executing all of the Haiti-based projects, building and leading the Haiti team, for managing to programmatic budget, and supporting with general administrative needs. Stephanie is currently a graduate student at the University of London in the Department of Politics. Her research is focused on poverty reduction and gender.
A native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Marc is highly interested in economic development and strongly believe that institutions can play a major role in improving people's lives. Marc is currently at Credit & Business Analyst at Lend Street Financial, Inc. , a FinTech startup headquartered in Oakland, CA. He was previously an Investment Banking Analyst at Canaccord Genuity in San Francisco. Additional work experiences include an Investment Banking Summer Analyst role at UBS in NYC and two summer internships at Sikorsky Aircraft, in Stratford, CT. Marc graduated from Connecticut College in May 2014, with a B.A. in Economics and International Relations (Honors). Marc was very engaged on campus through various clubs and activities, including the Peggotty Investment Club and Student Government. Marc spent the Fall Semester of his Junior Year in Cambridge, UK, studying Political Science and also took several courses at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Michelle Saintfort was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti but raised in Miami since the age of seven. Michelle is a single mother of two children (Malik and Mickaella). She moved to Cambridge in 2003 in pursuit of a better life for her and her children. In 2007 she started working for the Cambridge Housing Authority; there she held multiple positions. Michelle started as a tenant coordinator and worked her way up to leasing officer II, while actively volunteering at the Margaret Fuller House pantry as an assistant manager. After leaving that position in 2017, Michelle has taken an active role in The Haiti Initiative (SUD) as the Administrative Coordinator. As Administrative Coordinator, Michelle is responsible for general administrative needs such as notetaking, document retention, and inventory. The Administrative Coordinator works with the Project Manager to keep detailed records of the Haiti-based projects; serves as the liaison to our fiscal sponsor (The YWCA Cambridge). Michelle is also responsible for community relations and communications.
They say if you're not making someone else's life better you are living yours wrong. This is one of many lessons I have learned growing up and still hold with me ‘til this day. I was born in the heart of Port au Prince, Haiti in a working class family. My mother was a pediatric nurse and my father a hardworking truck driver. Our home was often a safe haven for family members and friends in need. During the mid 90s, Haiti was going through a very tough transition and so my parents felt it would be safer to come to America. Still my mothers taught us how to look for resources that we needed and to always remember " deux hommes mouye nan lapli gen yonn ki pi mal"... “There are those who are worse off than you” I worked very hard to learn English and excelled sports and academics. After graduating from CRLS, I worked for the City of Cambridge as a Youth Mentor with the KOED program, as well as the Mayor’s Youth Employment program. Currently, I work as an airline representative. It's a job that I truly enjoy; however, I find that I was not doing a good job of balancing my life. In January, I became the volunteer US Coordinator for The Haiti Initiative (SUD). I am responsible for communicating with our Project Manager; communicating with our US based partners, following up with action items from meeting notes, executing events, US based projects, and community needs.