First SOIL toilet in Shada

Shada is a community in Cap Haitien which is located directly alongside the river which flows through town.  The community is densely populated with approximately 15,000 people living in desperate poverty.  SOIL has been working with the community of Shada since our inception as an organization in 2006, though our roots in the community date back to 2004. Though overcrowded and deeply impoverished, this community is hopeful, motivated and kind.  The friendships we have developed in Shada have allowed us to engage in many different projects with the community including the Looking through their Eyes Photo Empowerment Project, a medical clinic, the Fatra pa Egziste contest and a partnership with Engineers Without Borders at the University of Minnesota.

Although it is located in Haiti’s second largest city, the community of Shada has no access to sanitation facilities.  The only toilets which exist in the community are small makeshift shacks built on the edge of the river with holes in the floor that empty directly into the water below, and even these are locked and inaccessible to the majority of the community.  People have to resort to leaving the community to relieve themselves or using buckets in their homes which are later emptied into the river.  Children go to the bathroom in the piles of garbage that line the riverbank.  Several international organizations have attempted to alleviate this problem by building public latrines in the community, but the water table is too high and within weeks the latrines fill with water creating even more serious hygiene problems.
SOIL has long wanted to begin an ecological sanitation project in this community and the University of Miami Intersession Course in January 2008 provided an ideal opportunity. The 10 students who visited SOIL in January worked together with SOL and a newly formed local youth group called UJDS and several local masons to construct the first dry toilet in Shada.  The toilet was inaugurated January 22 and, despite the many snags from microphone problems to car breakdowns, it was a beautiful community event.