Sustainable solutions for Haiti
Currently, our team of permaculture experts in Haiti have expanded to implement sustainable solutions to food and water supply, sanitation, and shelter. The focus is on using locally available, inexpensive, low-tech resources to create water catchment and filtration, earthquake and hurricane resistant shelter from renewable materials, sustainable sanitation, particularly for human waste, and food forests and other high production/low maintanence food techniques.
The team is connected up with the Ministers of Environment and Agriculture in the Haitian government and have coordinated on what is most badly needed in the areas they are working. They are “teaching the teachers” at a number of local NGOs in Port Au Prince and other areas how to implement these techniques. These organizations have been chosen because they focus on teaching, so will be able to continue to spread this knowledge. This has been determined the fastest way of implementing real, doable, and sustainable solutions to some of the major problems that existed prior to the earthquake and have deteriorated, as well as addressing the immediate emergency situation. They are seeking funding for instructors, materials and lodging for students.
There will be15-50 students per class. Each group being taught is selected because they are either already sharing or plan to be distributing knowledge in the form of classes, workdays, or workshops.
Budget which includes transport, food, lodging for students and wages for instructors and others is $5000
Ideal outcomes would include a strong base of interested groups that future projects could follow up with. Also the development of a permaculture basics in Creole.
To donate, go to permacultureguild.org/donations – Haiti fund
This is our partner non-profit organization that is accepting funds for our projects exclusively, via their Haiti fund.
For more information about this program, please contact Cory Brennan at cory@permacultureguild.us
Miami permaculture students in action
Graduates of the recent Urban Permaculture Design Course in Miami have not wasted any time applying what they learned.
Marcus Thomson, who organized the course, got his first permaculture design job before the course ended – installing a food forest in a suburban yard. He has offered to employ other course graduates for this project and is in the process of looking for more design work. He has planned a series of seminars on permaculture as well, and has offered to bring other graduates in on a community garden project in Little Haiti. He is already applying permaculture techniques to gardens and planting areas of Earth N Us farms, collecting and planting seeds, seedlings, sheet mulching with terra preta and using plant guilds.
Nancy Arraiz has also gotten her first job as a permaculture designer, installing rainbarrels for a household. She has started designing her own yard and is burning terra preta to enrich and stabilize her sandy soils.
Linda McGlathery is planning the planting of native edibles in a public space to beautify a homeless housing project. She is also in discussion with project management to create water catchment and a planting area for the homeless.
Ben Thacker has been planting fruit trees and veggie beds at a school for youth at risk for some time, and is now incorporating more permaculture techniques in his work.
Maggy Pons (only able to attend part of the course) was already managing six community gardens in historical Overtown, under the name of Roots in the City. Because of what she learned in the course, she has now created the beginnings of a mandala garden and keyhole beds and is using sheet mulching techniques and rainbarrels – she is also contemplating planting a food forest.
Check back to read about more adventures from Miami PDC graduates!
Ecozoic in Mexico
Alan and Ryan from our Pine Ridge PDC in Mexico
EcoZoic’s Shop Announcement
EcoZoic Era works with remote indigenous communities, marketing their traditional art to new audiences in an effort to raise global awareness, increase economic opportunity, and offer resources to address self-identified needs.
The Water for Huicholes! campaign is an effort in partnership with the community of La Laguna to assist with the issue of water access for Huichol villages throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental. Proceeds from the online auctioning of Huichol art and jewelry will support educational opportunities in sustainable design for the Huicholes, with an emphasis on hydrological systems.
Each piece was made freehand, in a ceremonial manner, by the family of Mara’kame, Jose Luiz Ramirez, who has requested that this art be sold for this purpose.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EcoZoic
Word from one of our recent Miami PDC graduates, Rosalia Cannava:
Hello conscience co-creators!
We are joining together in energetic support of creating a community/ Ashram/ Food Forest at “Nectar of Devotion” Even if you are not in Miami or south Florida you can empower this project by joining if even just in thought! Open for all bringing good vibes, love and harmony.
This group is a call to unite and join together in promoting harmony and love within ourselves and with all life. Self sufficiency is the key to freedom. Lets end our reliance on corrupt systems and embrace the divine within us and all around us. GROW YOUR OWN FOOD! MAKE YOUR OWN CLOTHES! FREE YOURSELVES FROM ALL ATTACHMENT!
Much love and many blessings and as my Permaculture Design teacher Cory says “To the garden!”
We are creating an ashram/food forest. I think it would be beautiful to have a vegan potluck so to see/feel the place where this is happening. Just a few weeks ago I finished the Permaculture Design course being held at “Earth n’ Us” farm in Little Haiti. During the course I settled with Silvana and her 2 daughters in Liberty City (just south of Little Haiti). We both maintain a vastly similar vision of living a highly conscience lifestyle through devotion to reaching our fullest potential in mind, body and spirit. She invited me to come live in commune with her and create a highly balanced diversified system. In mind, body and spirit we are taking steps towards our devotion and invite you all to join. “Together we’ll move a mountain!” Yoga weekday mornings at 8am (donations appreciated) and gardening daily except Wednesday and Thursday afternoons I’m out of the area but you would still be warmly welcomed. We are working on a schedule to include more things like Tai Chi, clothes making workshops, skin/hair care product making workshops, green building workshops, ceremonies, potlucks, food demonstrations (many of which raw vegan) and last but most definitely not least various yoga worskshops. Anyone interested in AcroYoga we will hold an afternoon workshop probably on a Sunday in April with Arianne Oomm (her FB name). She is an amazing Yogi spreading the AcroYoga/Thai message vibes.
Friday was such an amazing day for us. Under Father Sun with our hands in Mother Earth we aligned ourselves further down that path! We prepared a garden space for planting right by the front door. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, green onion and marigold directly into the soil and Papaya, 3 varieties of tomatoes (LOVE them!), rosemary, oregano, celery and other various greens (can’t remember all) to transplant later. So many people all across S. Florida have been uniting realizing that this is really something we need to work towards a harmonious balance with all life. Permaculture is just that!
I thank Silvana, Adam and Ben. Thank you for the love you’ve all put into our forest!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=331390166455&v=info
News from the ground in Haiti
From Nicole Klaesener-Metzner in Haiti:
Feb 8: We´re finished with our work at the hospital in Port-au-Prince. I will be in the States on Thursday. More later!
Jan 27: Tomorrow we meet in Petionville at the WASH Cluster meeting which is most important meeting for water and sanitation. I called Andy Bastable on his cell phone (Head of water and sanitation for OXFAM) directly, and he gave me the information. It should give us a lot of direction. We´re quite free to do what we think …needs to be done, which is good for getting things done
Aside from the smell of diesel, the hum of generators and military vehicles, the whole place reminds me of Telluride on steroids–only there´s a lot less music and a lot more helicopters. Planes of every description come and go all day and night. I live in a tent with five other people and the Volunteer Ministries, w…ho are responsible for everything, are very nice. We all work together to make our camp livable.
I live at the airport–and I mean literally. I can walk out of my tent and across a field and right onto the tarmac. You can probably see our yellow tents (Google Earth) on the south side of the runway, toward the eastern edge. There are tents and gear everywhere–over an area of probably 40 acres or more. The whole complex is secured by the UN.
Jan 22: I am on my way to Haiti with a group working under the Red Cross doing water and sanitation. I’m leaving this morning. We don’t know how long we’ll be there but I will try to post anything I can if we have any kind of internet access (not very likely). I am glad to be able to go and I have good people with me. I’ll write when I can. Ciao!
Haiti teams
We’re finally getting reports back from our intrepid team on the ground at Haiti.
When the sanitation team of Andrew Larsen, Rodrigo Silva and Nicole Klaesener-Metzner arrived a few weeks ago, it was very chaotic. Sanitation was a major problem which was threatening the lives of many individuals, including the rescue workers. There were almost no sewage systems even before the earthquake and the ones that existed were often compromised by the earthquake.
The team was asked to help with the general hospital in Port Au Prince. Waste was everywhere, human feces mixed with body parts, syringes, medical waste of all kinds, spoiled food, packaging, etc. Piles of garbage surrounded the hospital. The lavoratories were completely filthy and unusable.
The team immediately got to work and were able to hire some Haitians to help them clean up the garbage, find trash cans, and create a place where different types of garbage could go. The hospital and rescue organizations did not want to use compost toilets – it was felt that it was too complex to safely store the waste at that time, and the need for immediate sanitation solutions was so great, that they focused on getting portapotties delivered fast. But they did educate people about composting human waste in the process. The clean up was done with almost no materials available. They used crushed urbanite to line floors and ground areas around the hospital and keep it clean; they found materials here and there to create areas to contain the garbage.
They cleared out areas piled with garbage so that sanitary hospital tents could be erected to house and treat patients. Patients were dying or losing limbs from wound infections that could be prevented with basic sanitation, so this action saved lives.
It was quite a challenge to find a truck or any equipment to get things done and when they were waiting, they helped distribute food and clean water to thousands of displaced people from Port Au Prince. The situation is becoming less chaotic but when they first arrived, they helped wherever they could to prevent deaths – the need to distribute basic food, water and medical supplies and set up ways to keep them clean was vital.
After the hospital project, they did an inspection and found no garbage lying around anywhere in the vicinity. They then started working on creating latrines for one of the camps where Haitians were staying. It was again a challenge to find any building materials but they made do. They taught the Haitians they were working with how to build compost toilet systems that would be safe and sanitary, so that this could be replicated in other camps.
They continue to install sanitation system and are now doing assessments and planning creation of full sanitation systems for several orphanages and other buildings in the area. They are hoping that their plans of sustainable compost toilet systems will be approved by the major rescue organizations working on this project. Our team has connected up and is working with with local NGOs, such as SOIL (oursoil.org), which specializes in compost toilet systems.
The intrepid water team led by Mark Illian from Nature Helping Nature has been harder to reach but they have continued to teach Haitians to filter their own water safely throughout the damaged cities and camps. This is vital work as locally available water supplies continue to be compromised by human waste and garbage on the streets of the city and in the camps.
Our newest arrival, Hunter Haeivilin, is a tropical food specialist and is assessing growing methods and the food supply in the area , and seeing where his expertise could best be utilized, as well as helping the sanitation and water teams where needed.
Andrew has returned to the states and is in the process of doing an analysis of what he learned at this disaster site, which may help future Permaculture Relief Corps first responders be even more prepared and effective at getting sustainable systems implemented. It is a design challenge to arrive in such a chaotic situation and make strategical design decisions. There is no doubt the teams saved lives by choosing to arrive as first responders. The need was huge, and they were in significant demand for their low tech expertise which was essential in that situation. They are now moving into the second phase of disaster handling, where more long term planning can be done.
We are continuing to support the work of and coordinate with other groups, such as a permaculture team working in Limbe, a rural area, to grow food (http://noramise.org), and two builder’s groups planning sustainable, inexpensive, low tech and fast building techniques for the area.
Donations all go directly to the teams on the ground in Haiti for supplies and equipment – we are all volunteering our time on this project. Please go to permacultureguild.org/donations to contribute (note this is our partner non-profit for this project).
Update on Haiti
Another plane will be leaving from Miami in the next few days for Haiti. Needed are medical personnel, sanitation experts and water experts.
Our sanitation team is working near a main hospital, installing much needed sanitation systems in that area. Last we heard, our water team was headed to Leogane, which is almost totally destroyed, to teach people to filter their own water with a number of low tech methods. One of these is the Sodis method, using a plastic bottle and sunlight to kill pathogens; another is a sand filter, also effective at ridding water of pathogens. Solar ovens also kill pathogens. Combinations can be very effective. The major risk right now is from human waste or toxins entering the water supply.
The sanitation team is building compost toilets which separate liquid and solid human waste. The solid waste will decompose much faster when separated, and once all pathogens are eliminated, it can be used as fertilizer for fruit trees and similar food sources, which keeps the system as a closed loop and eliminates the waste stream. Urine can be used immediately to fertilize plants – it is sterile, and when diluted with water, becomes an excellent source of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. By using this waste stream to grow food, we protect sensitive ecosystems and human systems from pollution and we can accelerate the growth of a future food supply. These systems can be safely built with available materials – they are low tech systems and can be fairly rapidly replicated all over the cities and camps.
We have received some generous donations which enable us to fly a number of individuals to Haiti, so please pass this on to anyone who may be interested.
Haiti update
We now have two low tech water specialists (from naturehealingnature.org) and three sanitation experts on the ground in Haiti. They came from Texas, Utah, Austria and Portugal and flew out of planes leaving from NY and LA, provided by Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers (disaster first responders, who chartered planes to send volunteer ministers, medical personnel and water and sanitation experts to Haiti). The sanitation experts took enough materials with them to build a demonstration sustainable latrine which will service 1000 people per day. The human waste will be safely and securely composted and will eventually become fertilizer for food and fuel crops. The water experts specialize in filtering water with found materials, like sand, plastic bottles, etc. They’ve done this in villages in Senegal, Peru and other countries and are very resourceful. We haven’t heard from them yet but we will update again as soon as we do. Your donations helped make this occur – thank you!
Twelve more permaculturists are interested in traveling to Haiti as soon as another plane becomes available. We’ve also been contacted by a couple of midwives who would like to go as well as other medical personnel. Some of our permaculturists also have medical training – they are very much needed there. The city of Jacmel was wiped out 80% and they badly need sanitiation, water, and medical treatment there.
We are currently in negotiations to send equipment on several possible boats leaving from Florida for Haiti over the next 3-4 weeks. We’d like to stock the boats with equipment to build more compost latrines, water catchment systems, seeds for crops, and even possibly earthmoving equipment to create swale systems in badly eroded farmland. Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving Port Au Prince to return to the country. This is a good thing, because they can become self-sufficient via farming in the country (which is how things used to be), but because farmland has been strip mined and otherwise abused, it is essential that permaculture techniques such as keyline and swale systems be implemented, if reforestation and rehabilitation of farmland is to be successful.
Eventually, the people of Haiti will want to rebuild, and we hope they will use more sustainable building techniques, like quincha mejorada homes in Central and South America, which have withstood earthquakes well in Chile. These houses are made mainly from bamboo and earth, things that are readily available or could grow very quickly in Haiti (bamboo can grow up to 24 inches per day in some cases).
Quincha mejorada:
http://www.solucionespracticas.org.pe/publicaciones/pdf/CONSTRUYAMOSCONQUINCHAMEJORADA.pdf
Bamboo in Haiti:
http://www.oreworld.org/bamboo.htm
We are creating a number of partnerships with organizations already working in Haiti and have contacted an official in the Haitian government and briefed him on what we are doing. Our long term plan is to provide education via already existing organizations that will assist in sustainable rebuilding efforts.
We are now partnering with non-profit Permaculture Guild in New Mexico so your donations will be tax deductible. All donations are going directly to getting people on the ground in Haiti, we are all volunteering our time to make this happen. More info soon!
Cory
A Solution for Haiti
January 19, 2010 by cory
Filed under Sustainable solutions in Haiti
Currently, Haiti needs water pumps desperately because the earthquake has broken many of them. This is a life threatening situation. A permaculture solution would be to use the existing energy (humans) to handle the situation with a bicycle or teeter totter (see saw) pump. Gaviotas in Columbia has piloted these and they are now used in Africa and many other places. A teeter totter pump could be created out of existing materials lying around…..
Update for Haiti Project
January 19, 2010 by cory
Filed under Sustainable solutions in Haiti
We have three sanitation experts who want to go to Haiti to set up safe sanitation systems, and we are gathering equipment to go there as well. They will teach Haitians how to set up sanitation systems from existing resources (even rubble from collapsed housing can be helpful) while they are setting up systems. One of them has set up systems for thousands of people.
We plan to use a variety of systems including trench systems which separate liquid and solid human waste – the urine can be used as fertilizer for crops which can accelerate growth in badly degraded areas and the solid waste will compost safely much faster than if mixed with liquids.
We are working on putting together a team of water filtration, capture and reuse experts as water is the #1 issue there right now that is life threatening. The wells have been compromised by the quake and many of the pumps are down as well, so they need pumps.
We continue to work with groups in Little Haiti, Miami, to raise funds for sustainable relief efforts.
Your donations will pay for plane fares, equipment and food for the rescue workers.
We have created a database for volunteers for both now and future rebuilding efforts and are in planning stages for long term rebuilding, including education, building, planting sustainable food (food forestry, agroforestry, polycropping, etc. We have gotten a number of offers to donate seed and equipment to help create food and water security. Haiti used to be a major rice exporter and had enough food to feed her people. Politics and economic manipulation destroyed their food industry and we want to help bring it back.
An international web site has been set up to coordinate activities at permaculturehaiti.org. If you’re interested in volunteering, donating equipment or other things, please see the blogs and email list at that site, as it is now the central hub for permaculture solutions for Haiti.
To a much brighter future for Haiti,
Cory
