Konbit Pou Ayiti

A few times a year I fall behind on Haiti Reports and the website. It usually coincides with major meetings and travel, and this year is no different. During May, June and July, everyone at KONPAY was busy with the four regional strategic planning meetings we participated in for the Haitian National Coalition for the Environment, or KNAA. We were at a meeting of the South Department at the DCCH/Caritas Center in Laborde outside Les Cayes, followed by a trip to the northern part of the Artibonite department where groups met at the Jean Marie Vincent Center for Reforestation in Gros Morne. After that we hosted a meeting for the Southeast Department in Cyvadier, and participated in the meeting of the North Department at the Baptist Seminary in Limbe. I also traveled to the U.S.

Entèvyu  avek Yves-Andre Wainwright
Ansyen Minis pou Anviwonman
19 Fevrye 2008

Saturday mornings are the time to find the kids of JDS (Youth for the Development of Cyvadier) hard at work in their tree nursery, which - lucky for me - is currently located in my front yard. Last night the older kids who mentor the small ones came to begin cooking today's meal - rice, beans and vegetables with chicken. Dooby, Betrand and Joassaint are some of the most reliable in the group, along with Cyblie (pictured below).

Another beautiful day in Haiti. We woke early with the baby, when the sun began to shine into the house. For a few hours we gathered our things together for the day, made a plan, organized the funds we have in-hand and drank akason, a drink made from very fine cornmeal with milk and sugar, with bread and peanut butter.

Fourteen people from Massachusetts and New York will be joining KONPAY in January 2008 for ten days in Jacmel, Haiti's Carnival capital. Read a feature article about them in the Gloucester Daily Times. View their wish list for donations they will brig with them.

Haiti is melting into the sea.

Quite literally, each heavy rain washes more of Haiti’s land into the ocean. Rocks are stripped bare of soil, and mountainsides are turned into waterfalls in a heartbeat. As the land melts, people are left clutching at pieces of their lives as their homes are washed away in the muddy waters of the flood.

For Immediate Release: November 5, 2007

Emergency Flood Relief for Southern Haiti

Thousands are Homeless After Deadliest Storm of 2007