Meet Beverly, SOIL’s Port-au-Prince EkoLakay Director

You may remember Beverly from her interview with RFI earlier this spring where she talked with other public health experts about the vital importance of safely managing waste in Haiti. Beverly joined SOIL’s team in January 2018 as an EkoLakay Coordinator and her contributions to our work in Port-au-Prince have already been extensive. With a background in social entrepreneurship and management, she’s now managing SOIL’s sanitation service in Haiti’s capital city with wisdom and dedication as our new EkoLakay Director.

Read an interview with Beverly Pierre below to learn more about her vision for the future of Haiti and what she wants you to know about the day-to-day of making SOIL’s sanitation service run.

Why SOIL?

“I’m a HELP alumna and I graduated in 2015 with a Bachelors in Economics and Management. I first discovered SOIL in 2015 and am now happy to work with the SOIL family.

I was interested in SOIL’s work because of the role it plays in improving the living conditions in dense urban communities by removing harmful wastes and transforming them into something very useful. I like social work and working with people in their communities, so joining SOIL was a great way for me to give my time and share my knowledge.”

A normal day in the life of EkoLakay’s Port-au-Prince Director

“My days start by checking in with the teams to see what work they did the previous day and what’s coming next. Much of my day involves communicating across SOIL’s team, checking in with my supervisor, responding to emails. I also supervise the composting team on the treatment site to ensure that waste is treated according to all safety protocols.

Each day, I enter the operational data (like how much waste was collected throughout the day, for example) so that we can use the numbers later on for various types of data analysis. Depending on what needs to be done during the week, I often have meetings with the team.”

Improving health, restoring the environment

“Even though it’s not directly an educational program, SOIL’s EkoLakay program educates people on health, hygiene, and why safely managed toilets are important. This has a huge impact on public health in communities where open defecation is common.

Transforming wastes into a resource that helps the soil retain water, regenerate top soil, and increases agricultural yields is another important impact of SOIL’s work. Because SOIL’s Konpòs Lakay compost is 100% natural, and free of chemicals, crops grown with it will not contain harmful chemicals that could make consumers sick. And, increased crop yields will increase revenues for farmers, and more people will be able to eat – all thanks to SOIL!

SOIL is able to reach many people in communities where the government and other organizations rarely work because they are informal settlements, and shows that small organizations can have a big impact to try to reach the SDGs.”

Where do we go from here?

“I really hope Haiti will be able to improve its image at the international level, through education, agriculture, culture, and tourism. I hope we will be able to set up a better government system to help us improve all these aspects. And, I hope SOIL will be able to start working in many other areas in Haiti where open defecation is an issue. I’d really like to see SOIL working all over the country! For me, my dream is to have a few businesses across a few sectors and to use my knowledge not just to be successful, but to be of service to Haiti as well.”

SOIL is lucky to have a leader like Beverly guiding our teams in Port-au-Prince as we work to reach more families with an affordable and safe household sanitation service. In case you missed Beverly’s interview with RFI (in French), tune in to the conversation here.

Support SOIL

SOIL depends on individual donations from people like you to fund our work in Haiti. Please consider supporting SOIL today.

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Feature photo: Vic Hinterlang

*Learn more about the Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP) here.

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