Making Sanitation Accessible
We talk a lot at SOIL about increasing access to sanitation in Haiti. We’re hard at work to expand our programs every day as we work to build a city-wide sanitation service in a country where 75% of people lack access to a toilet. But what does it mean to build a service that’s truly accessible?
As we work to expand our EkoLakay service into new homes and new neighborhoods in the years to come, we’re also thinking about expanding access in a different way. For people with different levels of physical ability, making your way to a room far from your bed to use the ...
In Remembrance
Dear friends,
In countries and cultures around the world, there are days of collective celebration and days of collective mourning and remembrance. At the beginning of the year, most of us are focused on celebration - the beginning of a new year, the endless possibilities that await us, the unique moment of joy in the unknown future. In Haiti, that same joy is punctuated with a day of shared sorrow and renewed grief.
Today, nine years after the earthquake that claimed so many lives and changed so many others, Haiti's bustle and vibrancy fall quiet as those who ...
Taking a Ride with SOIL’s Sanitation Heroes
Happy new year to SOIL supporters near and far! As we all settle into the new year, I have been reflecting on 2018 and some of the moments that most inspired me. One experience pops immediately to mind, and I wanted to share it as a reminder of the importance of all that goes on behind the scenes at SOIL that makes this work possible.
As the years have gone by and my roles and responsibilities have shifted, I find I have less and less time to spend in the field. In the last months of 2018, I was honored to be able to take the time to accompany our EkoLakay collectors on ...
Growing 250,000 Trees
Though there’s ongoing debate about the extent and proximate cause of the challenge, what is clear is that Haiti’s mountainsides are deforested to dangerous levels and the country’s farmers struggle to produce enough to feed its people, in part due to depleted soils. As a result, most of Haiti relies on expensive imported foods, a factor which contributes to a cycle of poverty for both the country’s farmers and its people.
This drives us at SOIL. And it’s why we work tirelessly to treat and transform waste into high-quality organic fertilizer, branded ...
Towards a Greener 2019
Dear friends,
As we say goodbye to another year, it feels natural to think of the future and what it holds for us - our families, our friends, our planet. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, we share connections to each other and to the planet we are so fortunate to call home. I am so very proud to be working with partners and supporters from all corners of the globe who share a vision and a passion for creating solutions to the most intractable problems we face. In the coming years, I believe that we can build on the collaborative work we've done to build a ...
Showcasing Possibility at COP24
Earlier this month, SOIL was honored to receive the United Nations' Momentum for Change Award in Planetary Health at COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Momentum for Change honors innovative and transformative solutions that address both climate change and wider economic, social and environmental challenges. Recognized as a Lighthouse Activity, SOIL’s work is honored for being a practical, scalable and replicable example of a groundbreaking intervention to tackle climate change.
Check out this video showcasing the Planetary Health award winners (narrated by Sir David Attenb...
How SOIL is acting local and thinking global
Thanks to the support of our friends and donors around the world, SOIL is able to have quite a large impact in Haiti already. If you drive into the city of Cap-Haitien on a SOIL collection day, you’ll see bright green EkoLakay containers stacked up alongside the rode and a fleet of green three-wheeled motorcycles zipping along picking up containers and visiting customers. We are a team of more than 70, working through rain storms, floods, and holidays to ensure that our household toilets and composting waste treatment operation hums along. For every home on our service, ...
El País: How SOIL and Other Initiatives are Protecting the Planet
"The first time that Sasha Kramer traveled to Haiti, as a human rights observer after the 2004 coup, she was stunned by the lack of sanitation and waste management in the country,"writes Rocío Aguilera Vazquez for El País, one of Spain's most prominent newspaper. "Since then, she and community leaders created a project to build compost toilets that have now been recognized by the United Nations almost 15 years later for providing solutions to climate change."
In conversation about SOIL's recent Momentum for Change prize win, Sasha shared with Rocío that "SOIL is ...
Eight Years of Cholera is Eight Years Too Many
Photo: Monica Wise
A cholera epidemic began in Haiti in October 2010 and continues to sicken and kill people through the country to this day. How did this happen and what can be done to stop it?
One of the Largest Outbreaks in Modern History
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. Although cholera is an easily treatable disease, rapid access to treatment is essential as people can die within hours if it’s left untreated.
Cholera did not exist in Haiti before 2010. Shortly ...
SOIL at COP24: The Opportunity Ahead of Us
SOIL's container-based sanitation solutions have been intentionally designed to be resistant to natural disasters and our full-cycle household sanitation service helps Haiti - one of the most climate-vulnerable spots on earth - adapt to and mitigate the effects of global climate change.
"It is now devastatingly clear that tackling the global climate crisis is going to take immediate and urgent action," says SOIL board member Ingrid Henrys.
In the lead up to the COP24 conference this week, which SOIL is honored to participate in as a winner of the 2018 Momentum for ...
