May 2012 Newsletter: South Africa, Haiti, Sanitation and Friends
Dear friends of SOIL, I am writing to you from South Africa where I have been exchanging ideas with Durban’s municipal authority who are currently operating the world’s largest ecological sanitation project. I have learned so much from this exchange and am so grateful to all of the organizations, individuals and government representatives who have warmly received us. I have also been deeply inspired by the realization that, though there are many laudable projects happening throughout the world, SOIL’s work remains at the...
read moreAmerican Interest: Rebuilding Haiti: Why is it taking so long?
by Tate Watkins in American Interest, May 10, 2012. “The glass is 10 percent full,” says Nigel Fisher, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for reconstruction efforts in Haiti. “It’s now time to tackle the remaining 90 percent.” Yet more than two years after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and after billions of recovery dollars pledged by the United Nations, foreign governments, and private aid organizations, 10 percent full sounds appalling. An estimated 420,000 Haitians still live in tent camps. The cholera outbreak that...
read moreMercy Corps Global Envision: Transforming Poo into a Valuable Resource
By Pete Mercouriou on May 10, 2012 in Mercy Corp’s Global Envision. In Haiti, one nonprofit may have figured out how to make a pot o’ gold out of a port-o-pot. Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods, or SOIL is dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities, and transforming human waste into a valuable resource in Haiti. Leah Nevada Page, SOIL’s development director, gave us an insider’s scoop on poop. What’s the importance of ecological sanitation and how is it received in Haiti? “When SOIL...
read moreSOIL Anonse Konferans Nasyonal Asenisman 2012
Tanpri vin patisipe nan premye Konferans Nasyonal Asenisman nan Pòtoprens nan Madi ak Mèkredi, 12-13 Jen 2012. (English version.) Nan dènye 2 ane, plizyè òganizasyon inisye proje isit an Ayiti, ak twalèt konpostaj e systèm biolojik, nan yon efò pou transfòme matyè fekal imen nan yon resous ki gen valè. Lè nou konsidere ogmantasyon entere nan teknoloji inovatè pou transfòme deche, gen yon gwo bezwen pou pataje enfòmasyon pami ONG e gouvènman ayisyen, e pou kreye e ranfòse norm/règ nasyonal pou asire ke santé piblik...
read moreSOIL Announces the National Sustainable Sanitation Conference 2012
Please join us at the first ever National Sustainable Sanitation Conference to be held in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 12th and 13th, 2012. (Anonsman an Kreyòl) In the past two years numerous organizations have initiated projects in Haiti involving composting toilets and bio-systems in an effort to transform human wastes into a valuable resource. Given the rising interest in these innovative waste treatment technologies, there is a great need for information sharing among NGOs and the Haitian government and the creation and...
read moreSOIL Visit to EAA, Ouagadougou
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa. After a successful morning with the women of Dunkassa, Sasha, Bobo and I, accompanied by our ADESCA colleagues Zachary and Guninen, embarked on a road trip to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The purpose of our trip was to visit the African water and sanitation organization EAA / WSA (Eau et Assainisement pour Africa / Water and Sanitation for Africa), formerly known as CREPA. Sasha had first heard of the work of CREPA in 2005 whilst at an EcoSan...
read moreBack Into the Toilet
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa. Our wonderful adventures in the depths of abandoned pit latrines continued this week with yet another descent into the old school latrine in Kalale Benin. Our small SOIL team of myself, Baudeler (Bobo) Magloire and Anthony Kilbride, came to Benin one week ago to collaborate with a local organization ADESCA by sharing our ecological sanitation experience in Haiti in an effort to help make women’s community gardens in several rural communities more profitable. ...
read moreA truly magical experience from the Magic Toilet!
And now to put ecosan to the test… (This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa.) After our successful trial of exhuming beautiful compost from the Kalale school latrine on Wednesday, we had today the real test of our trip to Benin: to convince the women of the Bessassi garden community that they might want to create their own magic toilet, and use its compost (produced from their poop) in their own garden: No mean feat! The omens for a successful and convincing sensibilisation session were not all good...
read moreYon pelerinaj Asenisman mennen yon nouvèl dekouvèt nan listwa / Travel brings new discoveries in history
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa. English version below Mwen te vwayaje pandan twa jou tout lannwit poum te rive nan peyi benin dafrik e mwen te pase plizyè peyi tankou panama, kiba, lespay, mawòk, togo jis mwen te rive nan bout tè peyi benin dafrik. Objektif pwensipal vizit sa nan benin dafrik se te pou yon pataj eksperyans nan domenn sanitasyon ekolojik ak yon oganizasyon beninwaz ki rele ADESCA ki chita nan komin kalale nan benen e rive travay ak oganizasyon fanm nan 2 vilaj anndan kalale...
read moreSOIL in Africa Part 2: Into the Toilet
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa. Today we had one of the highlights of our professional careers, or at least it was one of my finest hours. In an attempt to demonstrate the possibility of converting human waste into compost the SOIL team, together with our hosts ADESCA, paid a visit to the local primary school. But this was not your usual school visit. We were looking for proof that human wastes can be transformed into soil, and what better place to find that proof than deep in the ground...
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