11/21: Garbage Doesn’t Exist: Empowerment and Transformation in Northern Haiti
Primary tabs
Flying Squirrel Community Space
285 Clarissa St.
November 21
7pm-9pm
Free to the public, donations accepted
In celebration of World Toilet Day, Kevin Foos and Sarah Brownell will discuss their work to transform apathy into empowerment and wastes into resources in Northern Haiti through their organization Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL).
-----
Can you hear Haiti? Suffering from hundreds of years of slavery, dictatorships, political turmoil, economic exploitation, and human rights violations, Haiti has long been the United States poorest neighbor. The Haitian people, however, have an unquenchable desire for freedom, a faith in democracy such that they would walk an entire day and stand in line another day just to participate in elections, and a fascinating resilience. Whenever there is a small space made for acceptance in the climate of repression, grassroots groups spring forth.
No matter which party is in power, poverty is still the main, ever present human rights violation in Haiti. Many people do not have access to clean water, enough food, a place to go to the bathroom, a grade school education, a job, or health care. But through community empowerment and education projects, international exchange, and simple technologies, grassroots organizations in northern Haiti are exploring alternatives that protect both human health and the environment and give them reason for joy.
Kevin Foos and Sarah Brownell will discuss some of SOIL’s projects:
· Looking Through Their Eyes Photo Empowerment Project: Youth, many of whom do not go to school, are lent digital cameras to use to capture what they like and do not like about their community. The photos are used as a spring board into discussions about what youth can do to make change--to protect the things they like and change the things they don’t like. Collective ideas for change are supported, encouraged and sometimes even funded by SOIL. We will present music videos of the youths work and empowerment success stories from Shada, one of the worst slums in Haiti.
· Transformation of Wastes into Resources: We will discuss the liberation ecology base of SOIL’s mission and how we use technology centers to give local people the choice over which life saving technologies are best for their community, how participatory education programs allow folks trained in universities and those trained on the land to exchange knowledge and ideas, and how, through collaboration with women’s groups, peasant organizations, and youth groups, simple technologies that protect health and the environment can find their way to the poorest slums and most remote villages. One of the technologies with which we have had most success is the ecological Dry Toilet which transforms human wastes into fertilizer (Happy World Toilet Day). We also promote reuse and recycling of the garbage that litters local communities into useful, beautiful, or artistic items.
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. We believe that the path to sustainability is through transformation, of both disempowered people and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources. SOIL promotes integrated approaches to the problems of poverty, poor public health, agricultural productivity, and environmental destruction. We attempt to nurture collective creativity through developing collaborative relationships between community organizations in Haiti and academics and activists internationally Empowering communities, building the soil, nourishing the grassroots.
