Cap Haitian

The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) has released a "Call for Applications" for its first business plan competition in Haiti, Konkou Biznis Ayiti. The contest's theme is the commercialization of biogas in Northern Haiti.  The contest winner will receive up to $50,000 in financial support from AIDG, and training on both biogas sytems and enteprise management.  The contest deadline is March 6th, 2009.  Applicants must be Haitian citizens.  The offical press release is copied below.

Konbit Sante is a non profit organization based in Portland, Maine.  Their focus is improving the physical infrastructure of Cap Haitian’s Justinian Hospital and building the capacity of its staff.  Konbit Sante has helped to upgrade facilities, water supply, electricity, medical equipment, and computer information systems.  In addition, it has set in place  numerous training opportunities for health care providers.  The attached annual report provides background on their accomplishments in 2008.  Especially exciting is the new Women’s Initiative, dedicated to improving maternal health.

In 2004, a group of farmers from Cap Haitian put their ideas into motion to create a cooperative which connects rural communities with markets. Four years later, Makouti Agro Enterprise is a bustling agribusiness in a country severely hit by the rising costs of food and fuel. The demand for Makouti’s services outweighs its newfound ability to supply them. Recognizing the critical need for timely support to these communities, Partners of the Americas and Global Giving teamed up to enable individuals around the world to support Makouti projects in vegetable gardening, animal production, and fruit tree cultivation. These projects teach rural families how to improve production of food for consumption and income.

The publicity surrounding Haiti's political instabilities and poverty are known to the media, yet the country's children are often missing from the images and minds of the world. Strange Things, a Hamm Production documentary, follows the lives of several orphaned, homeless and impoverished children in the streets of Cap-Haïtien. The documentary is an honest portrait, through the street kids' eyes, while describing their stories of survival. Interviews with local residents recount why and how over 300,000 of Haiti's children are left to survive poverty on their own. When you ask a child on the streets of Haiti "What's up?" they say "Bagay Dwol" - strange things.

Malnutrition is a threat to health but it is treatable.  The cure is the appropriate kind of food.  There is no reason why children should die either from malnutrition or infectious diseases they are vulnerable to because  malnourishment has weakened their immune systems. Earlier we wrote about Plumpynut, a Ready to Use Therapeutic Food that has revolutionized the way we treat malnourished children - and saved many of their lives in the process.  Current sent us a video about Meds and Foods for Kids,  organization in Cap Haitian that decided to make their own version of Plumpynut from local ingredients.  They have been very successful and now the World Bank is supporting them to provide "Medika Mamba" nationwide.  It is an innovative idea that is now having a nationwide impact.

If you want to read about social unrest in Port au Prince, take a look at this collection of articles on Reliefweb.   However, if you need a break from reading about Port au Prince the way I need a break from writing about it, here we are.  Haiti is, thankfully, bigger than Port au Prince.  Haiti's two secondary cities are Cap Haitian, the city of history, and Jacmel, the city of arts and culture.   Though these cities have been neglected under generations of dicatators, each has much to offer and each will play an important part as Haiti rebuilds. 

The Maine based Konbit Sante group continues to make a difference in Northern Haiti by investing in the human and physical infrastructure that the Hospital Justinien needs to become the hospital that Cap Haitian deserves.  In recognition of their efforts, Konbit Sante was recently awarded a $30,000 grant from the Dorthea Ross Haus Foundation to build a pediatric emergency room at Justinian Hospital. The project, which is expected to take six months to complete, will also help improve water and sanitation in the pediatric facility.

For Peace Corps Volunteers living on the Central Plateau, Cap Haitian was a nice city to spend a long weekend in.  Sure, the road was unbelievably rough, but there are nice hotels, restaurants, and beaches. Of those beaches, Labadee is one of the nicest and is basically set aside for Royal Carribean.   According to the Miami Herald, Royal Carribean and the Haitian Government recently inked a deal to expand the cruise line's operations in Haiti significantly.