88 results for tag: SOIL


Expanding SOIL’s Data Concepts and Analyses Using DataCamp

SOIL's Research & Operations teams collaborating  SOIL’s research team is always looking for ways to improve our EkoLakay processes so that we can continue to provide our customers with the highest quality sanitation service. To do so, the team regularly undertakes projects and analyses that inform strategic and operational improvements to our services. An important way for the researchers to identify and understand the specific changes that need to be made is by generating solid, data-driven evidence for analysis and study. DataCamp, an online, interactive learning platform that teaches users data science and skills, has partnered with ...

Meet Djimitri, SOIL’s Director of Operations

SOIL’s Director of Operations, Djimitri Célestin, growing directly out of Konpòs Lakay bags mixed with soil. We recently sat down with Djimitri Célestin, SOIL’s Director of Operations, to learn more about him, his connection to SOIL, and his lovely garden in Cap Haitien, where he grows vegetables using SOIL's Konpòs Lakay. Djimitri has been a part of the SOIL family since 2019. A condensed version of his interview follows. We hope you enjoy getting to know Djimitri, as much as we enjoy working with him! Tell us about yourself and how you came to work with SOIL.  I grew up in Haiti, but moved to the US for college. I stayed there for 10 ...

Research Collaboration Has Increased Efficiency of EkoLakay Collection

photo credit: Felipe Jacome The SOIL team is continually researching and testing new ways to increase our operational efficiency in order to provide better sanitation solutions and position our service for sustained growth.  In April we began implementing a new routing app that optimizes the collection routes between our customers’ households in Cap-Haitien. The app was developed for SOIL by DataKind, a nonprofit that collaborates with organizations to design and build out impactful data tools.   The SOIL Research team has been working closely with DataKind to understand and trial ways to make our collection services more efficient using tools ...

Increasing climate resilience: how Konpòs Lakay helps agriculture producers during drought

Haiti is currently ranked third in the Global Climate Risk Index  as being  particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Climate change impacts Haiti in a number of ways: increases in the intensity and frequency of hurricanes, flooding, landslides due to soil erosion, and also drought brought about by erratic rainfall patterns, which is compounded by a lack of water management systems. Drought can be particularly devastating to agriculture production, but also contributes to lack of food security and malnourishment. SOIL’s regenerative sanitation solution seeks to not only offer better sanitation options for vulnerable urban communi...

October 2020 Newsletter: Haiti’s long history in the fight for social justice

Dear Friend, We wanted to take some time this month to acknowledge the incredible collective action we have witnessed this year, with protests around the world highlighting the ongoing struggle for social justice and accountability.  As an organization based in Haiti and run by a community of Haitian staff, board members, partners, beneficiaries and donors, over the years our team has borne witness to similar calls for action and protests against policies and complex systems of power that disadvantage the majority of Haitians. Haiti’s long history of collective political action can be traced back to its independence from France in 1804 – when ...

SOIL featured in Expo 2020 Dubai Global Best Practice Programme | Untold Stories

In 2019 SOIL was awarded the Innovation Impact Grant by Expo Live, an innovation and partnership program launched by Expo 2020 Dubai, for our sustainable social enterprise solution to sanitation in Haiti. The goal of this grant is to provide support to help grow social enterprises and projects and promote creative solutions to that improve lives while preserving our planet. As part of this incredible effort put forth by Expo 2020 Dubai to highlight and showcase the over 200 organizations participating in the Expo, SOIL was also chosen to be featured in their Global Best Practice Programme, Untold Stories. The Global Best Practice Programme is a ...

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 locally as Konpòs Lakay. Our compost is loaded with all of the nutrients needed for ...

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 Attenborough!): Planetary Health: Narrated Sir David Attenborough from Momentum ...

Sludge Love at 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference

A few weeks ago, SOIL Directors Sasha Kramer and Nick Preneta traveled to Chennai, India to represent SOIL at the 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference (FSM4). Sasha gave a presentation about SOIL's EkoLakay program, and we also shared two posters about Konpòs Lakay and our ongoing cost analysis research. @SOILHaiti sasha kramer speaking wisdom at #FSM4 https://t.co/eFFGTNbJkN — eve mackinnon (@eve_mackinnon) February 20, 2017 [gview file="https://www.oursoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/SOIL-Composting_Poster-v4.pdf"]  [gview file="https://www.oursoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FSM4_ProcessCostAnalysis_Poster_v4.pd...

The POOP Project: You’re Tuned to CBS: SOIL’s Sasha Kramer, Kory Russel and Container Based Sanitation