The Arniquet Project
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is working with the commune government leaders, Maurice Chateau and Bernadette Genois. Arniquet is a small commune in the south of Haiti. The population is roughly 29,000 and decreasing everyday due to climate force migration. A sizable Arniquet diasporic members live in the metro-Boston area. The project is to support an initiative to build a gabion wall and a eco-bridge where the ravine have formed behind the town hall near the center of town. The massive ravine threatens the future of the town and the lives of the people who live in and around the town center.
The Solar Project
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is looking to work with Haiti-based community associations who are willing to work as a partners in a cooperative model to develop a model for sustainable hybrid-microgrid solar energy to rural and suburban communities. The idea for funding for each hybrid-microgrid system is going to come from remittances sent from abroad and sols/ sou-sous based in Haiti. The purpose of this project is to create a profitable business model that can replicated using a renewable energy resource, the sun, to provide power to rural and suburban Haiti. In July, Haiti exploded in violent riots of the exaggerated increase in the price of gasoline fuel. Haiti’s economic landscape is heavily dependent on gasoline for everything from transportation of food and material goods to home energy. The increase in the price of gasoline could have meant a lack of electricity because of the gas fueled generators used by NGOs, businesses, and individuals. The solution to the problem of is decentralization. We need get off of fossil fuel dependency. We need microgrids. Solar power materials are expensive and highly taxed in Haiti. The material access is one of the obstacles we face in attempting to create microgrid solar energy in Haiti. To get involved, contact Marc Herold at haiti.initiative.cayes@gmail.com.
The Plastic Project
The purpose of The Plastic Project is address the plastic waste management problem in southern Haiti. We plan to approach this problem in three ways, education, recycling plants, and enforcing the ban on one time use plastics and styrofoam. A potential funder has charged us with finding the value of a single bottle of plastic. The goal is to incentivize individuals and small businesses to collect plastic. We have also been tasked with identifying the companies, non-governmental organizations, and community organizations working on plastic recycling in Haiti. So far we have been in touch with Environmental Cleaning Solutions (ECSSA) and THREAD. They have identified an a woman, Nancy, who operates her own recycling plant in Les Cayes. We will be connecting with her as soon as possible. The funding support of The Haiti Initiative (SUD) will allow the design of a pilot program to test the sustainability and feasibility of this project as a long term solution to this plastic waste management problem in the southern region. Please contact haiti.initiative.cayes@gmail.com for more information and to get involved.
The Climate Change Conference
In February 2019, we will be hosting our next Climate Change Conference at the American University of the Caribbean - Les Cayes. Our keynote speaker will be Roosevelt Jean Felix of Plate-forme des Organisations Haitiennes des Droits Humains (POHDH). The mayors of Torbeck, Arniquet, Chantal and Ile la Vache have been invited to speak on the impacts of climate change on their communes. Our second keynote address will be by local agronomist Emilson Joseph. There will also be presentations by local associations including Fierte Cayenne, Centre Communautaire Kaykok, Organisation de Développement Durable et Solidaire d’Haïti (ODDSHA), and Organisation des Techniciens et Paysans Haïtiens (OTPH). Our sponsors include Jardin Botanique des Cayes, Audubon Society Les Cayes and Hope for Haiti.
Annual Delegations
We organize delegations of less than 10 people to visit the southern region of Haiti.The Haiti Initiative (SUD) delegations to Haiti merge service with camaraderie, learning with mingling, and linking people to people. The purpose of the trips are to meet the folks who are organizing around climate change in Haiti; to learn about the history of Haiti from Haitians. And view first-hand hurricane infrastructure damage and local projects to reduce future damage - tour local environmental projects. Our next delegation is from July 11-18, 2018. We will be attending the conference mentioned above.
The Donation Drive
Donate some tools to our collection drive. We are still raising supplies for Haiti-based activists to prepare for the 2018 hurricane season. We're collecting tools for Haitians to rebuild their own homes after the inevitable storms. So, don't send your old clothes, send some real tools. Click here to order some tools online.
