Many Hands: SOIL's EcoSan Training

Haiti has often been referred to as the Republic of NGOs - no one knows exactly how many programs exist in the country, but there are easily thousands, maybe tens of thousands, operating in this country of nine million people.

In this environment, NGOs can get caught up in competition with other organizations (or the government) for limited resources, and seeking the good of the country takes a back seat to seeking funds. But here at SOIL, we see other groups as collaborators, not competitors. There is a Haitian proverb that says, Men anpil, chay pa lou: many hands make the load lighter. If we are going to solve the sanitation crisis in Haiti, we need to share knowledge and experience as much as possible. That's why SOIL is happy to host intermittent trainings on ecological sanitation that are open to the public.

Last week, our EcoSan training was attended by staff and volunteers from international NGOs, local community organizations, the Haitian government, as well as individual citizens who simply wanted to learn more about EcoSan. The workshop included sessions on toilet construction, composting, community outreach, and risk reduction, as well as on the political, social, and economic factors to consider when implementing EcoSan projects.

This is SOIL's 9th session of our EcoSan workshop series, which started in 2011. To date more than 200 people from over 30 organizations have attended these trainings and we look forward to many more in the coming years. Speaking of, stay tuned for our next workshop which we plan to hold in Cap-Haitien early this spring. If you would like to reserve a spot now or get added to our waitlist to receive announcements about this training, please email us at [email protected] to sign up early!

For the inside scoop on our workshop series check out what some of the participants had to say:
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