239 results for tag: In Haiti
Further Successes in the SOIL Pepper Plots!
Another great update from the SOIL Experimental Gardens at Penye. On January 8, the SOIL team came together for the second of three harvests in the Pepper Plots, and we were once again thrilled to see how successful SOIL compost was in aiding the growth of our green peppers. Our January harvest was especially fun for us, because we had some unexpected helpers! The SOIL Audit team, comprised of our auditor, our Board Treasurer, and our Treasurer's son, took time during their visit to Port-au-Prince to dig in and get their hands dirty helping with the harvest. We love when our visitors get involved, and were honored to have the team's help. Results ...
Women in the World: "Saving Lives with Smart Toilets in Haiti"
Published January 9, 2013 for the Women in the World Foundation. By Sam Ritholtz The third anniversary of the cataclysmic Haiti earthquake—a monster that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, killed 300,000 people and displaced more than 1 million—is coming up on January 12 and with it will come a fresh slew of media stories about the miserable state of Haiti today and its failed reconstruction efforts. That makes Sasha Kramer mad. "People around the world will be throwing up their hands and saying, ‘Haiti again! Will they ever get their lives together!’' says Dr. Kramer (pictured above), an ecologist and head of a Port-au-Prince-based ...
Recognizing a Community Health Hero
Today the SOIL team was thrilled to present Marie Mineuve Felissant, one of our public toilet managers, with an award for excellent work and exceptional commitment to SOIL's mission of providing safe and dignified sanitation to people throughout Haiti. Ms. Felissant manages one of the SOIL toilet blocks in the Kan de Viktim IDP camp in Port-au-Prince. Originally from Jeremie, Ms. Felissant's extended family remains in the southern city, while she and one of her young daughters reside in the capitol. Prior to the 2010 earthquake, Ms. Felissant was working as a housekeeper, for a woman in Port-au-Prince. However, her home was destroyed in the earthqua...
Theo Talks Episode 6: Loop That Poop!
More on the Secret Life of Poop Coming Soon in HD! Talking about poop can be tricky. But not for Theo and the SOIL team! In Haiti (and many places around the world) human waste is considered taboo, and people dance around the subject nervously, treating it like a terrible secret. Most languages have euphemisms for defecation—in Haitian Creole people say they have yon ti bezwen, “a little need”, or m’ale nan twalet, “I’m going to go to the toilet.” For the many people throughout Haiti who lack access to a household toilet or latrine, this “little need” is often fulfilled only under the safe cover of night. With no access to a toilet, ...
Beautiful Peppers, Courtesy of SOIL Compost
Some encouraging (and tasty) news from the SOIL gardens at Penye. We have harvested our latest crop of green peppers, planted in evenly sized, spaced, and watered plots, but with one important difference: one plot was planted with no compost, one was planted with 3 pounds of SOIL compost per foot, and one with 1.5 pounds of compost per foot. The result? The plot without compost yielded far fewer peppers, and they were small and scraggly. The plot with 1.5 pounds of compost per foot yielded strong, healthy, beautiful and bountiful peppers; they got our tummies rumbling! We're not entirely sure why, but the 1.5 pound per foot patch resulted in a better ...
SOIL's Leah Page Accepts the UNCCD Land for Life Award in Doha, Qatar
As regular readers of the SOIL blog will already know, SOIl was lucky enough to be awarded the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification's Land for Life Award for our land rehabilitation projects in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.The award was officially presented last week in Doha, Qatar, and SOIL's Development Director Leah Page flew out there to accept the award on our behalf. A few weeks before the awards presentation, a filmmaker named John Liu paid the SOIL team in Haiti a visit, as well. He spent a few days venturing around with the SOILies in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien, and has put together some really beautiful footage that ...
Inaugurating the Household Toilet Project in Shada
Last Friday the SOIL teams from both Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien came together to celebrate the official launch of the Household Toilet Project in Shada. The event was a great success, with participation from SOIL, DINEPA, Re.Source, KOSS, and many community members. The program began with comments from Theo Huitema, SOIL's Regional Director for Cap-Haitien, and from Executive Director Sasha Kramer. Representatives from KOSS, Re.Source, Konbit Sante and DINEPA also made presentations, with charismatic emcee-ing from SOIL agronomist Romel Toussaint, who oversaw all of the presentations with flair! The program also included a skit that humorously ...
Theo Talks Episode 5: Ki moun vle kaka? Who Wants to Poop?
Join SOIL Regional Director Theo Huitema on another adventure in EcoSan as he watches SOIL staff members training residents of Shada, Cap-Haitien, to use their Household EcoSan toilets. This month marks the official launch of the Household Toilet Project, and hundreds of families in Shada will receive lovely SOIL toilets for use in their homes. Don't forget to join us this Friday, December 7th, for the official Household Toilet Project launch party in Shada, Cap-Haitien! For more information, click here. Check out the full Theo Talks video series by clicking here.
Entering in Style!
Sasha and I made a grand entrance into today's CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) meeting, hosted at the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince. As some of you may know, both the Karibe and CGI meetings in general are pretty fancy, but that didn't stop the SOIL crew from wheeling in a giant squeaky wheelbarrow full of beautiful compost! And the best part? Everyone loved it! Sasha introduced our Christmas Compost Special--we are selling 1,200 bags of compost for the holiday season--and we even sold the 5 bags that we had brought along for display. We were deeply flattered and very encouraged to see so much interest in our compost, and we were pretty tickled to ...
Waterborne Disease Hits Close to Home
The past couple of weeks have been a new kind of learning experience for Sasha and myself, as we, along with several other people in our neighborhood, came down with Typhoid Fever. Although it hasn't been a fun or easy experience, Sasha and I count ourselves incredibly lucky and grateful to have access to medical facilities and treatment, and most especially to have a safe and comfortable place to convalesce and to call home. We are ever more aware of the precariousness of life for most people in Haiti, who often do not have access to any form of health care, and all too often do not have a home. Additionally, this experience highlights the incredi...