Sustainable Change Occurring in Haiti through Alternative Energy

This week brings the end of three years of work in Haiti. As a friend commented recently, we really have come a long way. I am thrilled and amazed by the progress we have made towards our mission to build sustainable communities by placing the power to create, use and sell alternative energy into the hands of the poor. The most exciting thing to report about 2011 is that it was the year in which we empowered Haitians to change the lives of people in their communities, sustainably.

With over 100,000 jatropha trees planted (and an additional 150,000 funded for next year) we will soon see dramatic economic changes in rural Haiti. Each tree produces enough oil-rich seeds to create a gallon of oil that is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel. This means that for the next 25-45 these 100,000 trees will bring economic improvement to rural Haitians while the trees improve soil and reverse deforestation. A critical byproduct of producing jatropha oil is a charcoal replacement briquette that is made by pressing the residue or seedcake from the pressing process. Our nurseries each produce 10,000 seedlings every three months and farmers eagerly take these seedlings to their land and plant them without displacing any food crops. Our press needs repairs and as soon as it is ready we will make our first oil. 2012 promises to be another incredible year.

We end 2011 with 240 homes that have their first electricity. Far from the grid these homes are serviced by the IEEE/Sirona Haiti Rural Electricity Program. The IEEE worked with Sirona to design and ultimately deploy six Sunblazer units. These are 1.5kW solar charging stations run by entrepreneurial Operators. Each Operator has forty customers who pay a modest $6.70 per month for basic electricity. Customers receive an energy kit that has a rechargeable battery, lights and the ability to charge cellular phones. When the kit is exhausted (five to seven days on average) the customer brings the battery kit back to the charging station and three hours later the kit is ready to return to their home. The IEEE and the Sirona team have been thrilled to see that, due to our culturally appropriate business plan, all 240 customers have paid every month, every Operator has made his lease payment to Sirona keeping the program sustainable, and nothing has been stolen or damaged since deployment in June.

This program has had such success that the Haitian Secretary of Energy has announced that Sirona Haiti's electricity program is the model for electrification of rural villages. USAID is supporting the program by building Sirona a Haitian assembly facility. This spring the first Haitian built Sunblazers will roll out to rural communities and provide the first electricity many have ever had--at a price lower than what they are currently paying for noxious kerosene, candles and cell phone charging.

We are very excited for next year, the groundwork has been laid for amazing progress to occur in 2012. As the year ends we thank all of our partners and friends in Haiti, our supporters, all of our donors, all of the IEEE volunteers and all of the funding provided by the IEEE for the Sunblazer pilot units. We thank the Government of Haiti for including Sirona in the energy sector strategic planning process and inviting us to display our unit at the Caricom Energy Week events. Many have read the article in World Magazine, and we appreciate all of the kind words and donations that this article has generated. Thank you, one and all. 2012 promises to be a very exciting year full of progress in Haiti and beyond. Year end donations are graciously accepted by the Sirona Cares Foundation!

Jatropha Program Thriving with 100,000+ Trees Planted

It's amazing what happens to a community when you give them options for a better future.  It is exciting, and incredibly rewarding.  Since 2009 we have been working with rural Haitians and refining our Jatropha Program.  Because Haitians developed the plan there is a strong sense of ownership and pride associated with the work of planting these trees.

Jatropha is a shrub that produces non-edible fruit.  The seeds of this fruit are rich in oil, and this oil is extracted with a mechanical press.  Once pressed the oil does not need further refining to run in most diesel engines (generators, trucks, tractors, etc.).  Jatropha oil can be mixed with diesel fuel.  This will bolster the economics in rural areas, and lower carbon emissions in Haiti.  As if this isn't enough, the byproduct of the pressing process (seedcake) can be compressed into an alternative charcoal briquette.  This will also generate income in rural Haiti and protect the vulnerable island from further deforestation.

Today we have over 1,000 participating farmers in southern Haiti and over 100,000 trees have been planted.  Hillsides have been bolstered, soil improved, and no food displaced by the process because we either inter crop Jatropha at safe distances or use it as a border crop (because animals do not eat it).  Each of these trees should yield enough seed to create a gallon of oil each year.  If we assume the price of a gallon of oil to be $5.00, that means these communities will bring in $500,000 a year.  Jatropha lives 25-45 years, so in 25 years these communities will have made $12.5 million dollars.  The proposition is exciting, and encouraging.

More encouraging was the news we received from the JDT Foundation last month.  Named for Joseph Dennis Thomas, the Foundation focuses upon improving education, the environment and the economics in Haiti.  Sirona is honored to have received grants from the JDT Foundation which will pay for the planting of our next 100,000 trees in 2012.  In addition, another grant from Dupont will allow us to plant even more trees and begin the process of producing jatropha oil this spring.

It has taken a lot of hard work to get here, but it is gratifying to see the difference that Haitians are making.  The program is run as a partnership with Sirona funding nurseries to generate seedlings, and the trees are then planted voluntarily by farmers to help improve their land.  We are always looking for ways to create even more sustainability, so this past year we allowed 10 farmers to "borrow" $50 each to extend their farms.  Rather than be repaid in cash we elected to have these farmers pay back the debt in food to the local school's lunch program. 

Many thanks to the JDT Foundation, to Dupont, and to our supporters who have gotten our friends in Haiti this far. 

Sirona Now Poised to Generate Millions in Haiti, For Haiti

If you work on sustainable development projects and decide to tackle something as profound as energy poverty, it's easier to see the long road ahead than the progress you make.  This morning I got an e-mail from a friend asking how things were going.  I said that we had planted 50,000 jatropha trees already, and our goal is 250,000 by the end of the year.  We're at 20% of goal in mid-February, which is great.  Then I started thinking about the financial impact this project has for our communities in Haiti and that already we've created the potential for over six million dollars of positive impact for Haiti.  I apply these facts and assumptions:

FACTS:

• Jatropha oil is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel and can run most generators/diesel engines without refinement.  It's value compares to fossil fuel.
• Our farmers displace no food crops with this project, and pay nothing to participate.  We provide the nursery, training and seedlings. 
• This is a non-profit effort to sustainably improve lives in rural Haiti.
• Jatropha is non-invasive and has grown in Haiti for hundreds of years.
• Our model is co-op based, non-exclusive and collaborative.
• Sirona buys/leases no land in Haiti for our project.
• All fuel sale profits are re-invested in development work in Haiti. 

 

ASSUMPTIONS:

• Jatropha plants should live for 25-45 years, I've taken 25 for my assumption.
• Over the next 25 years the price for a diesel substitute will not rise above $5.00 per gallon.  This is a lower value than diesel sells at today (around $8/gallon) and a very safe assumption. 
• Each tree produces enough seed to create one gallon of jatropha oil per year.  We are testing this, and feel it is a safe assumption.  Internationally this is a conservative number, but we're not in India or Africa, and we won't know until we harvest.  Because our plants are inter-cropped with food crops (rather than using the poorest land available), we believe that they will receive the care necessary to produce this amount of oil.  A plus of this farming method is that jatropha puts nitrates back into the soil, repairing and improving the food crop's soil.

 

So, here is what I wrote to my friend today, and wanted to share on the blog:

• Every donation of $100 plants 1,000 jatropha trees
• Each tree produces one gallon of fuel a year ($100 donation=1,000 gallons of fuel)
• Each gallon is worth $5 ($100 donation=$5,000)
• Each tree will produce at this level for 25 years ($100 donation will put $5,000 into the Haitian economy per year and $125,000 over time.)

 

Today, with 50,000 trees in the ground, our project will put $6.25 Million dollars into the Haitian economy over time:

• In two years, these 50,000 trees should produce 50,000 gallons of fuel a year, for 25 years.
• At $5 per gallon, the fuel sales will inject $250,000 per year into our farming communities
• Over the life of the trees, the financial impact (if our assumptions are accurate) will be $6.25 Million dollars 

 

And we all know what they say about a-s-s-u-m-p-t-i-o-n-s.  Even if we're wrong, even if it's half of that, the project will put more than $3 Million dollars a year into a country desperate for revenue generating projects, re-forestation projects, improved soil and alternative fuel sources.  I've addressed the nay-sayers there, but to the supporters: just what if we're right?  If we reach our goal of planting 250,000 trees this year, the financial impact two years later will be around $625,000 per year culminating in $31.25 Million over the life of the trees.  That's really, really exciting to stop and ponder.

If you have a dime in your pocket (well, I think the minimum donation on Paypal is $5), send us a donation.  That dime will create $5 in revenue per year for the Haitian community, and ultimately provide $125 dollars worth of positive impact.  $5 bucks, or 500 trees creates $2,500 per year for 25 years, or $62,500 over the life of the tree (unless I'm wrong, and it's half, meaning your $5 will only made a $31,250 impact.)  All this without displacing a single food crop, and at the same time improving the global environment and Haiti in many ways (slowing deforestation; creating a low carbon/low emission fuel substitute; improved soil, creating a clean-burning charcoal alternative, not to mention many jobs and community improvements...).

We have enrolled over 1,000 farmers excited to participate in the program.  We can't keep up with demand at our nurseries and would love to plant faster.  Next year's goal is completing 1 Million trees, and we could make that this year with adequate funding.  The more fuel we produce and sell in Haiti the better; if it can't be sold in Haiti it is a very valuable export for which I have a guaranteed buyer.  We expect the Haitian market for this oil to be robust, but we have a back-up plan just in case.

Today I feel really excited.  I can look at where we are, what our Haitian partners have accomplished, and breathe for a moment.  Once I click "Publish" I will turn back to the long road in front of us... but it has been a really, really good morning.

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New Nurseries Bring us to 50,000 Trees in Haiti

We're very excited about launching our IEEE/Sirona Rural Electricity Program next month, but we've haven't slowed down on the Jatropha project.  I am excited to report the start of two new nurseries this month.  With over 1,000 farmers enrolled in our program we're confident that by the end of the year we will have planted 250,000 trees. Photos show the beginning of the nursery in Petit Goave that is already full of seedlings, and the tools that the nursery set-up dollars paid for.

Jatropha was hailed as a magic bullet internationally because its oil from its seeds is a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel.  Initially there was a rush to purchase or lease large tracts of land for Jatropha plantations resulting in food crop displacement.  Many Jatropha projects failed because field maintenance costs created poor economics and food displacement is a very real issue.

Our program is unique because we're creating the possibility for the small farmer in Haiti to succeed without displacing any food production.  Haitian farmers are typically not monoculture farmers, usually there are a number of things being grown in a garden.  We provide the seedlings from our nurseries and train them on safe intercropping.  Haitians know Jatropha, it grows wild there.  Because it is not eaten by animals, it was traditionally used to mark graves in Haiti.  It's also a popular hedge crop.

Haiti suffers from severe deforestation resulting in great losses of topsoil and landslides.  Much of the soil is depleted of minerals, and crops are not thriving as they could.  Jatropha addresses both stabilizes the land (shrubs will live for 25-45 years) and puts nitrates back into the soil.  Jatropha oil is, in fact, a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel.  By simply crusing the seeds and filtering the oil you can run generators or stretch regular diesel for almost any diesel engine. The biproduct of the crushing process, seedcake, makes a nitrogen rich fertilizer or can be compressed into charcoal briquettes (reducing the need to cut down trees for charcoal and creating revenue for the farmers in addition to the seed sale).

Fuel is the path that dollars take out of every community in the world, and by placing the power to grow, use and sell clean fuel in the hands of Haitians we are addressing many issues, both Haitian and global.  We've planted 30,000 trees already and now have 20,000 seedlings in our nurseries.  By the end of the year we will have planted 250,000 trees.  Jatropha oil is a valuable export but our goal is to sell the oil in Haiti at a price that sustains the program.  Sirona Cares is a 501(c)3 non-profit, and we roll all profits from fuel sales back into infrastructure development in Haiti.  The project is scalable, replicable, and well received.

Jatropha is NOT a magic bullet.  Jatropha IS a plant with incredible properties that can be grown without displacing food, improve soil for food crops, slow erosion, and reverse deforestation allowing other trees to grow again on the mountains of Haiti.  This project is an environmentally responsible approach to helping impoverished communities help themselves, and in the process offset carbon emmissions of other countries.

Haiti's Earthquake: Looking Back & Forward

I have not written since the anniversary of the earthquake.  I have many mixed feelings and feared that I would not articulate any of them in a meaningful way.  Nobody can imagine really what it was like for Haiti to lose hundreds of thousands of people in moments.  The damage was beyond comprehension.  The lack of a plan to move forward has crippled the country and with no strong government, no plan, no focus and no funding or solid international support Haiti is still paralyzed.

A year ago I was literally drowning in the goodwill of the Bay Area in response to the earthquake.  I kept busy sorting and packing goods for survivors with volunteers to keep my mind off of all of the people I could not reach.  I held a ticket for Haiti dated only days after the earthquake and it took me two more weeks to get into the country through the Dominican Republic.  Donated planes flew us from one town to another allowing us to see many of our partners.  Haiti a year ago was full of American military.  When I arrived the streets were clogged with rubble, dust burned our eyes and throats, people slept in the roadways of Port au Prince, and NGO vehicles were everywhere.  Signs were posted with pleas for food, water and medicine.  The streets of Port au Prince were peaceful and eerily quiet, I have never experienced that level of calm in the city, before or since my Februrary visit.

Only some things have changed in a year.  The signs are gone, as is much of the assistance.  Haitians walk and live amongst the rubble of the earthquake.  They lack every form of service we take for granted, namely access to clean water and electricity.  A cholera epidemic has ravaged the country since October and turmoil from an unresolved presidential election looms ever present.  The extremity of the poverty and the complexity of the issues in Haiti were hard to articulate yesterday, and today the ousted dictator, Duvalier (Baby Doc) has returned to Haiti. 

I do not comment politics in Haiti.  I spend all of my energy and building sustainable communities in the rural areas of Haiti.  I work directly with community leaders designing programs with them that will benefit their people.  We focus upon addressing energy poverty, and are bringing real solutions to village people.  With over 1,000 farmers enrolled in our jatropha program we will soon see positive economic development in the countryside based on locally produced biofuel.  When we deploy six electricity stations next month we will create six businesses and bringing light to 240 homes. 

Our organization is successful because we listen to our Haitian partners and design with them programs that will work for them.  It pains me to look at how little over-all progress has been made in Haiti over the past year.  The urgent message that must come out of Haiti is that it is not hopeless; that people do want and will work for sustainable development.  They prefer this option to charity.  The population is young (a median age of 20) and they embrace change.  In their memory there are no "good old days" and they desperately want to create a future.  I would urge people who believe in the power of the human spirit to keep your eyes on our work in Haiti to be reassured that positive change is possible, and is taking place, regardless of the media's portrayal of this broken country.

 

Haiti 2011: Sirona's Goals for Rural Improvement

As we begin the year, we owe thanks to many people for supporting the work we are doing in Haiti.  2010 was an incredibly difficult year, beginning with the devastation of the earthquake. Cholera hit Haiti in the fall killing more than 2,000 people, storms flooded the west of Haiti and the presidential election resulted in chaos.  The news out of Haiti in 2010 was not good.

Current political instability is a serious issue.  For many an investment in Haiti is deemed too risky, and millions of dollars donated to Haiti's recovery have still not been sent.  I go to Haiti every other month, and it is my opinion that the primary cause of instability in Haiti is the horrific living conditions suffered by most of the population.  With 80%+ unemployment people are poorer than most readers of this blog could begin to comprehend.  They lack electricity, they lack safe water to drink, and many cannot eat, much less send their children to school.  Living in these conditions creates enourmous stress, and anger.  I believe that Haiti must be invested in, because I believe that the root of the instability is the stress suffered by the people there.  If they could find work, feed and educate their children, and have access to the basis for a life which includes electricity and water, then and only then could stability begin.  As long as the suffering of the people is as intense as it is, there will be instability.

All of our work is geared at building sustainable communities.  We will not change Haiti as a whole, but we will create communities that are stronger, where people have the means to work and gain access to power, to clean water, and make a living.  Our jatropha project is designed to give rural Haitians the ability to produce, use and sell biodiesel; our electricity project is designed to create small businesses and provide electricity to those with no access.  Rather than aim at making a small difference to a great number of people, we are geared at making a very big difference to small communities of people, and we are succeeding.

Sirona began working in Haiti in January of 2009 and what we have accomplished, and where we are going, is noteworthy:

• The jatropha program, designed to improve the lives and communities of rural Haiti: We have planted over 40,000 trees and enrolled 1,000 interested farmers.  Our 2011 goal is to plant 250,000 trees.  We have every reason to believe that we will exceed this goal with no problem.
• Rural Electricity:  We worked with the IEEE for over a year to design and prepare for deployment a Rural Electricity Program.  Our first shipment will occur this month.  In February we will bring light to 240 homes that have no access to electricity and power six new businesses. 
• We provided aid to over 20,000 people following the earthquake, the largest Northern California response.
• We have received the funding for our press to extract jatropha oil from the seeds so that we can begin selling it in Haiti in the coming months.
• Our nutrition program based on Moringa education has improved the health of over 2,000 children who were suffering from malnutrition, many of which are HIV positive.
• We have linked our partners who educate and care for children to resources and through this process fed thousands of meals, funded a sustainable school garden, bought locally produced school uniforms putting 75 children in school who would otherwise have been unable to attend, and funded the education of one little girl this year.  We also received enough cleats and shirts to create the soccer uniform for the orphans at Mission of Hope (above).

2011 is going to be a very exciting year, and we are eager to complete our funding goals.  This year we intend to accomplish the goals above as well as complete the rebuild of the Mission of Hope School in Grand Goave.  Haiti needs investment, and we need the support of people willing to invest in improving the lives of Haitians.  If you haven't donated, please do, every donation counts, and every dollar changes lives.  If you have donated, please accept our gratitude, and many thanks from our partners in Haiti.

 

Haiti's Election Looms, Sirona's Development Moves Forward

We leave for Haiti on the 17th, our 4th trip this year.  Everyone is anxious about instability during the elections scheduled for the 28th because there a lot of frustrated people in Haiti.  Prior to our elections we see this, our economic woes are in sharp focus.  We don't see rioting, but imagine a country of 9 million people where more than 10% (1.3 million) are homeless and suffering, a cholera epidemic has begun, and the aid promised to your country has not reached you or your family... elections would be very tense.

It's important for us to travel now because we have some significant work to accomplish.  Sirona Cares has been working with the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) on a Community Solutions Initiative aimed at putting electricity in the homes of 1 million rural Haitians.  This, like all of Sirona's work, has been designed as a sustainable solution rather than a charitable drop of equipment.  The goal of our upcoming trip is to establish three pilot groups.  We will supply the equipment that they will need to (a) create a business with the power; and (b) begin a battery subscription program for rural customers who can receive and recharge batteries for use in their homes. 

The project has been in the works for some time, and the CSI team now has the funding to put three pilots into Haiti.  The equipment and set-up team will go down in January.  We need business plans from our enterpreneural partners and logistical information from them to get the project off the ground, hence the necessity of a trip during the election period.

In addition to our electricity project, our jatropha work has grown incredibly since the August trip.  We now have 500 farmers eager to participate in the Miragoane area alone.  I will be meeting with them, formalizing the program and funding the nurseries.  The need for funding is urgent, and the project will move as quickly as funds can be raised.  It has been an incredible year, full of tragedy, full of anxiety, and yet full of hope, positive action and progress.  The larger organizations are stuck, working on their strategies to move Haiti forward.  The funding for Haiti seems stuck as well.  Sirona Cares, I'm thrilled to say, has the advantage of being smaller and able to maneuver quickly creating positive change in our communities.  While others are talking, we are acting, and this should be a very exciting trip.

Hurricane Tomas Nears Haiti, yet Development Plans Continue

Like my partners in Haiti I wait and pray that Hurricane Tomas will pass through their fragile and battered country with as little damage and loss of life as is possible.  As if the earthquake was not enough, the recent cholera epidemic and instability relating to upcoming elections have everyone on edge in Haiti.  It's a hard time there, but the reality is that Haiti has been suffering for a very long time.  Most of the issues we face working in Haiti predate the earthquake: lack of infrastructure, lack of electricity, extreme poverty and health concerns.

Plans for development in Haiti often fail because Haiti's people lack so much.  Food is scarce, unemployment is 80%, literacy rates are low, and the median age in Haiti is only twenty.  Any newcomer faces the same dilemma: do we provide charitable aid today or do we put plans in place for future development?  Immediately organizations are hit with very hard choices and forced to make hard decisions.  Do you help who you can, or do you say no and stay your course?  There are more NGOs (non-government organizations) in Haiti than in any other country, most are providing charity, but a few are developing sustainable solutions.

The Sirona Cares Foundation (SCF) has found balance, but it is not easy.  We say no to individuals who are desperate for assistance and use our resources to benefit many, rather than few.  We have continued to press forward with our economic development plans and become a conduit to create change for children in Haiti supporting their health and education.

By giving farmers the ability to create, use and market bio-fuel for generators and diesel engines without displacing their food crops we are creating the very real potential for change. The profits of the program are to be reinvested in the farmer's communities.  More often than any other quote our Haitian partners tell us: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.  Development is preferred to charity, and our work has been embraced for this reason.  We are creating the possibility for change; ownership of the positive work belongs to them.

News stories show the suffering, the illness, the political unrest, the horrific living situations, and a picture is painted that is so bleak that people may wonder if dollars that they donate can actually make a difference in such a place.  The answer is yes, particularly when invested rather than given away.  In August we met with farmers in Miragoane.  At this time nearly 500 farmers want to work with SCF to improve their lives a little, and their communities a lot.  Regardless of the storms, the illnesses and all they lack, the Haitian people are proud, strong, and very anxious to change the course of their future.

Positive Change through Sustainable Development in Haiti

Sirona Cares creates sustainable communities in one of the world's most challenging areas, rural Haiti.  We have positive reception and success on the ground because our project is designed to empower Haitians.  Sirona Cares develops a stable economic base through farming of Jatropha.  Jatropha, inedible, has seeds that are oil rich and it grows all over Haiti.  The trick is to use the right seeds with the highest oil content and the best germination rates.  We are currently researching those issues and have implemented our Pilot with great success.  We now have over 400 farmers enrolled in our program.

We do not allow farmers to displace food crops, and we designed our plan to discourage farmers from doing so.  The way the program is designed, food crops are more valuable than Jatropha seeds, so farmers have no economic incentive to displace food.  They do have an incentive to participate in the Jatropha project though, as a way of slightly increasing their income and substantially increasing development in their communities.  Food security is critical, as is a need for locally produced fuel for generators and diesel engines.

So why is the program "Sustainable"?  Because it is designed to carry itself in the future, and improve the lives of the people in the communities that farm at the same time.  Another long term effect of the project is a positive impact on the environment.  This fuel source can displace (through the oil and briquettes made from the by-product) the production of charcoal, and our plants will reverse the damage of deforestation while they improve the soil for food production.

We, Sirona Cares, a 501(c)3 non-profit, provide the seeds/bags/training/nursery set-up and then we pass the torch to a Haitian for-profit entity, Sirona Haiti.  Haiti has more NGO's (non-government organizations) per capita than any other country in the world.  Creating another non-profit is not as beneficial to our partners as a Haitian for-profit company that can receive investment capital and repay investors.  Sirona Haiti will sell the oil and reinvest in the project as well as the infrastructure of the farmers' communities.

 

After a recent post the question was sent: Will Sirona ever put refineries in Haiti for biodiesel production, and could Haitians manufacture the biofuel if we did?  The answer to the latter, could Haitians produce biofuel, is most certainly yes.  The answer to the first question however, is no.  Sirona will not put refineries in Haiti because the refining process requires import of expensive chemicals, catalysts, to strip the oil of it's glycerine.  Jatropha is already very pure, and naturally low in glycerine.  It does not need to be refined to be used in generators or in many diesel engines, therefore we see the expense of importing catalysts and building refineries as unnecessary.  If a group in Haiti were to undertake such an endeavor we would be happy to collaborate with our extensive experience, but it's not a project we plan to undertake.

Haiti Huddle: Collaboration in San Francisco

My last post about collaboration in San Francisco, namely the SOCAP10 and Haiti Huddle conferences ended with:

It's exciting to fill rooms with people passionate about the same things...I am very optimistic that such focused efforts will produce positive results. I will be facilitating a breakout session during the Haiti Huddle focused on Creating Sustainable Jobs through Microenterpreneurship.

After attending the Haiti Huddle and watching SOCAP10s live stream I would like to report that both events went well. The Huddle was filled with actors from many organizations and synergies were created through the process. Permaculture was needed in areas and connections were made; HR's Bruce Christensen was there connecting with regard to cement mixing. There were great presentations from groups like Architecture for Humanity, Nouvelle Vie and John Engles of Haiti Partners illuminating at the work on the ground.

Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity put it right when he stated that for any of us to succeed, egos must be checked at the door, and collaboration is critical. He pointed out that as small organizations we are "tugboats" rather than tankers. We are nimble, and we can accomplish much... and we accomplish much more by working together.

Meetings like the Haiti Huddle help people outside of Haiti connect, but also create value by giving us connections to pass on to our Haitian partners. It's not about "us", its about making things better there. It's about building something sustainable with Haitians that we can walk away from in the future and move to help others struggling in other places. Yesterday I was in a room with people who felt the same way.

In our group, Creating Sustainable Jobs through Micro-entrepreneurship we identified a critical component that needs immediate attention, and that is locating funding mechanisms for "larger than micro" financing. There must be funding opportunities for entrepreneurs to create sustainable businesses larger than the micro level, businesses that employ and have a multiplier effect. There are new opportunities in Haiti for such businesses to emerge, Life Giving Force, for instance, installs water treatment equipment and, if financed properly, can create businesses for would-be entrepreneurs. Sirona Cares is implementing a rural electricity project which also holds potential for job creation, but more than a micro loan is needed to put someone in business. NGOs know the people on the ground, we can attest to their creditworthiness, and eventually we hope to find the funding mechanisms necessary to get these businesses off the ground in Haiti.

I was correct in my last post, there was a lot of positive energy here in San Francisco, and hopefully through collaboration much more will be accomplished in Haiti.