Community

Fonkoze (Foundasyon Kole Zepol) has recently upgraded their website. One of the events being featured is a Haiti Solidarity Conference that will take place from October 10-12 at the Wyndam Miami Airport Hotel and Conference Center. The conference features speakers from the Grameen Foundation and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, discussions on micro-finance, as well as Haitian music and theatre. The registration form is attached below.

Last week, there was an announcement on Corbett's List that Lambi Fund had been awarded a grant by the Blue Print Creative Group.  This grant will help them to cultivate brand awareness, increase volunteerism, and stimulate corporate and private donations.  Americans are a generous people who make possible the work of scores of local and international organizations in Haiti.  However, support is often more forthcoming for natural disasters than the heavy lifting (capacity building, civil society strengthening, livelihoods) that is needed to help people feed themselves, manage their own emergencies, and become active leaders, instead of just aid recipients, who can address social problems. We hope that this grant will help them get the word about what they do and why it is important.

Like the United States, Haiti has a military tradition.  Both countries won freedom through warcraft.  Sadly, the Haitian military went on to kill far more Haitians than all attacking forces combined.  The Haitian military degraded into an engine for corruption, human rights abuses, and coup after coup. Jean Bertrand Aristide disbanded the military in 1995 but they remain a threat as Jonathan Katz reminds us in the Miami Herald.  

USAID has just announced that literacy and fighting HIV/AIDS will be the focus of a new three year stabilization effort.  HIV/AIDS will be built into curricula and training will be provided for for teachers, school administrators, and inspectors.  If you've had any exposure to the Haitan education system(s), you know how important this is.  Food may be the key to the present, but education is the key to the future.  For more information, take a look at the main USAID website or the USAID/Haiti website.

American Express is hosting a competition on its website where users (you don't have to be a member) submit ideas that could have a positive social impact if given a little bit of funding.  $2.5 million will be divided among the top 25 projects.  Let's face it - this is mostly advertising for American Express but a little seed money can go a long way.  There is one worthwhile Haitian project concerning reforestation in Les Cayes but you could always submit an idea of your own.  The deadline is August 18th.

Though I haven't interacted directly with S.O.D.A (Sosyete Djòl Ansanm pou Demokrasi Patisipatif), I am intrigued.  SODA is a local organization, not an international NGO, that describes itself as "...a decentralized network of grassroots groups based in poor communities in that are dedicated to promoting voluntary and cooperative ways of organizing in the pursuit of social justice, economic self-sufficiency and universal education."  Their programs are ambitious and the website well done.  This organization is definitely worth a look.

Is the third time the charm? Prime Ministerial Candidate number three Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis was approved in a 61-1 vote in Haiti’s lower legislative chamber.  Sexism, homophobia, and power politics could yet derail this nomination. Haiti needs a Prime Minister in order to have a functional government that can tackle developmental challenges, chief among them food insecurity.

Imagine this: You’re a prominent public official accused of a heinous crime against your countrymen. Despite the entreaties of those in power, you refuse to hightail it out of the country to a villa in the Dominican Republic, because you are determined to clear your name. So you turn yourself into the police.

There have been many changes at Haiti Innovation over the past year.  With the invaluable assistance of Development Seed, the organization which designed the Haiti Innovation website, we've effectively made the transition to a no cost, non profit consultancy.  We now regularly provide technical assistance, guidance and contacts to individuals and organizations who are currently working in Haiti or interested in doing so. We also speak frequently with journalists to help impart a more balanced view of Haiti and the developmental challenges the country faces.  And of course, we continue to blog.  Haiti Innovation is growing and we want you to be an active member of our community.

Maybe I should call this blog the Fuel Security update instead.  The big news this past week was the elimination of the government gasoline subsidy which drove fuel prices up to over six dollars a gallon.  With limited funds and infinite needs, the government decided to focus its attention on agriculture and other programs to fight poverty.  However, transporting food and other commodities (or oneself if seeking health care) is less affordable now and out of reach for many. The tap-taps are all charging more. Also, the price hike is eating into the budgets of the international and non-governmental organizations which are active throughout the country.  More money on fuel means less for programs.