• We opened offices for SOIL and our twin Haitian organization, SOL in Cap-Haitien, complete with a composting system, a rooftop garden, and accommodations for visitors and interns.
  • We established our second and third Technology Exchange Centers in Milot and Duchity.
  • We've employed a team of 10 people working in Cap Haitien, Borgne, Milot, and Duchity (along with many other volunteers).
  • We installed 220W of solar power, a computer, and a UV water treatment system at the Borgne Sant Teknoloji Bwase Lide (Brainstorming Technology Center) and provided funding to refurbish their building.
  • We installed a dry toilet, computer, and electrical system at the Sant Teknoloji Tet Ansanm (Heads together Technology Center) in Milot.
  • We constructed 33 ecological toilets for schools or community organizations in 6 out of 10 of Haiti's geographical departments (some in partnership with other groups).
  • We've secured funding to build 6 more ecological toilets in Cap Haitien, Milot, and Bod Mer Limbe in partnership with other organizations.
  • We trained 38 masons in the construction of ecological toilets.
  • We conducted 9 community seminars on sanitation and hygiene in communities where we've constructed toilets.
  • We translated, printed, and distributed 200 copies of the Kreyol Sanitation guide developed by the Hesperian Foundation: Asensiman ak Pwopwete pou Yon Anviwonman San (Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment).
  • We are developing a partnership with Oxfam, the Mayor's offices of Cap Haitien and Milot, and the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) to create a large scale composting and methane gas production site for latrine and dry toilet wastes from all of Cap Haitien. If you have expertise in large scale composting, we will need your help with design and planning!
  • We will improve the physical space of our Technology Centers and create demonstration gardens and small businesses to help each center become sustainable.
  • We will offer a weekly radio program on sustainability, health, and simple technologies for listeners all over northern Haiti.
  • We will fundraise to meet the needs of communities that have written project proposals for public dry toilets. We currently have 10 communities that are waiting for funding.
  • We will expand the Looking Through Their Eyes photo project where youth identify problems in their community and work to change them. We will also begin working with video in addition to the digital cameras. We will need new digital cameras since ours were stolen.
  • We will hold "Fatra Pa Egziste" (Garbage Doesn't Exist) contests in schools and for children who can't go to school to encourage youth to creatively turn wastes into resources.
  • We held a water disinfection workshop for community leaders from 8 organizations and installed a UV-Tube water disinfection system that we built in the workshop at the Cap Haitien prison.
  • We coordinated the "Looking Through Their Eyes" photo empowerment project for 21 youth in a slum of Cap Haitien and celebrated their creativity.
  • We offered three days of free medical consolations, a seminar for midwives, and a workshop for expectant mothers in an urban slum. Our nurse, Pat Dahlberg, saw over 150 children and distributed free medications.
  • We hosted summer interns from Stanford University and UC Santa Cruz.
  • We began a partnership with The University of Miami International Studies Department and Millennium Village Project to support student research and exchange visits to Haiti.
  • Board member Jenny Benordan created a documentary called "SOIL: Sowing the Seeds of Change in Northern Haiti" and is screening it in northern California.
  • We financed a start-up household rabbit business with an avid gardener in Borgne.
  • We supported Rosemond Jolissaint, a 16 year old singer from Cap Haitien who sings about social change and recently won the Digicel Stars competition, Haiti's version of "American Idol"
  • We will begin a school sanitation program that includes the photo empowerment project, sanitation and hygiene curriculum, boys and girls ecological toilet construction, a compost bin and garden, and the Garbage Doesn't Exist contest. We will need $5,000 - $7,000 per school. We are developing designs for indoor dry toilets that can be used in houses in urban slums. Wastes will be collected at a common intermediate site and transported to the large compost site.
  • We hope to establish a laboratory to detect the viability of ascaris (intestinal worm) eggs after composting in ecological toilets.
  • We are planning a 500 household arborloo project for the rural areas surrounding Borgne.
  • We will be hosting 6 students from the University of Miami for an intersession course in January and 2-4 summer interns