Here is a place for Gigi Pomerantz and Franci Polyte to develop their sustainable development projects for the people of Duchity, Pestel, Haiti.

Haiti Soil Project Update
Gigi Pomerantz

Dear All-

This is an interview I did for a radio show out of Eau Claire, WI. I am amazed, as I listened to it, that it captures some of ALL the things I am interested in. I hope you’ll listen and hear about Shir Hadash, Tikkun Ha-Ir, St Thomas, and my work in Haiti. I invite you to listen to it and check out the website. I think it will be available to listen to on Monday, after it airs on Sunday. I heard a “preview version” which you can link to via ‘Windows Media Player by going to “open URL” and putting in the following: http://www.infinitejoy.com/RADIO/SIA/GIGIPOMERANTZ.MP3

If it helps in any way to spread the work - please do!!

love,
gigi

Here is Gigi’s First Introduction to this Worthy Project:

Ecological sanitation is a low-cost approach to sanitation where human wastes are composted and recycled for use in agriculture. This approach is currently practiced in communities throughout the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, and has the potential to provide inexpensive and safe sanitation, improve public health, reduce environmental pollution, enhance agricultural yields and create livelihood opportunities. SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) is currently promoting several pilot ecological sanitation projects in rural Haiti.

Maintaining soil is the essence of sustainability from both environmental and social perspectives. The basic elements that make up living matter all come from, and return to, the soil. Nutrients from the soil are constantly flowing through all living organisms. Healthy soil retains and cleanses water resources and protects communities from natural disasters. All of humanity is dependant on soil, biologically, economically, socially, and spiritually. Human health, livelihood, and well being are inextricably linked to the soil.

Increased global consumption of food and fiber has diminished soil resources and increased environmental pollution. Nutrient and chemical runoff from industrialized crop and livestock production and human waste pollute water supplies, with serious regional environmental, health, and social implications. Deforestation, driven by localized poverty and charcoal demand and global demand for forest resources, has led to serious erosion. Fertile soil needed for productive farming is washed into aquatic systems, where it displaces fishstocks in a cycle that continually reduces local food production. In addition, the denuded mountainsides no longer protect communities from landslides and floods

Increased soil fertility is also critical to income generation, particularly in impoverished agricultural communities, which constitute approximately 2.4 billion people worldwide. In contrast to industrialized farming systems, these communities rarely have access to the commercial fertilizers that are used by wealthier farmers to maintain soil fertility and increase production, making it difficult for poor farmers to compete in the global market. Each year hundreds of thousands of farmers are forced to leave their land and seek work in the cities, no longer able to support their families through farming. Cities do not have adequate jobs or services to absorb the flow of internally displaced refugees and, in many communities, poor water and sanitation contribute to the spread disease and drive families deeper into poverty.

Given their importance to human health, livelihood and wellbeing, access to soil fertility and water resources are politically and socially regulated and, much like oil, are increasingly controlled by capital markets. Poor farmers are unable to afford prime agricultural land, irrigation or inputs and much of the world does not have access to safe drinking water resources. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

SOIL seeks to support and engage in collaborative community-based education and implementation projects which utilize local creativity, resources, and labor to enhance soil fertility, improve crop yields, limit erosion, protect water resources, and create livelihood opportunities for impoverished communities in Haiti.

In collaboration with SOIL, we propose to work together with the people of Duchity, Pestel, Haiti to improve their local sanitation through the use of ecological composting toilets. To that end, we have engaged the services of a local man, Franci Polyte on a part-time basis to begin educating and organizing the community. Once their organization is established, they will be able to apply for grants that fund grass-roots efforts.

Our team to date consists of members committed to the work of sustainable development. We invite others with ideas and resources (or access to resources) to join us in this beginning project.