I would appreciate being contacted by a representative of an NGO in Haiti if your organization is involved in Bio-intensive Agriculture and Water Retention for the purpose of irrigation.
Our website will give you some insight into our NGO: Spring Rains Developments at www.springrains.ca
Thank you,
David Brandon
Dear David
Our partner organisations work with techniques like fertility trenches, contour line planting, composting, and agroforestery. Most of them are in the Departement Nord-Ouest. One partner organisation also has experience in constructing infrastructure for irrigation
Generally, in Haiti there are quite a few local organisations that have some good expertiese in these kind of techniques. .
Some very basic information on what we do in Haiti (in french):
Personally, I am based in Switzerland but i can put you in contact with our coordinator in Port-au-Prince or with the persons in charge for one of the partner organisation.
What is your interest? Do you just want to exchange or do have some specific questions? I hope you speak some french or Kreyol.
Best wishes
Simon
Good Day Simon,
Thank you very much for your reply. Sorry for my delay in responding. We have had one of the coldest springs on record here this year, but the sun decided to favour us last Thursday and I could not resist leaving my desk for the yard. However
we are right back into the low single digits today.
Let me tell you a little about Spring Rains Developments before I get to my request.
Spring Rains Developments began in 2004 as a charity arm of seven families. We have resourced and advised several food and water security projects in Asia, Africa and South America, however over the last seven years we have almost exclusively
focused our attention on a community development initiative in Zimbabwe led by Dr. Randy* and Natalie Watson of Bopoma* Villages (www.bopomavillages.org ). The reason we decided to focus on Bopoma was leveraged
off our previous experiences that helped us realize that BV was going to be very successful. In particular their full program also included our particular narrow focus — water & food security supported by water retention via rain harvesting for the purpose
of hydration.
Serendipitously, in 2018 we were approached by a Haitian NGO who asked us for support. After quite a lengthy period of due diligence that included overviewing what we support and what Bopoma is involved in, we agreed to sponsor three months of
training for their Haitian leader (Eddy Buissereth) at Bopoma’s site in 2019. Unfortunately, a few weeks before he was scheduled to leave he became seriously ill leading us to rescheduled him to literally leave yesterday for Zimbabwe. Of course now due to
Covid-19 we have once again rescheduled — hopefully for January 2021.
My request: In light of this latest delay I am hoping that there would be a NGO in Haiti that is focused on Food and Water Security that we could send Mr. Buissereth to be trained in 2020 for an extended period of time. In coo-operation
with his sponsoring NGO we would of course cover the cost. It is still our intent to send him to Zimbabwe in 2021.
No I personally do not speak French, but we have access to this resource if needed.
Thank you again for responding,
David
*Dr. Watson is a Heart Interventionist here in Canada
** Bopoma translates as waterfall
David Brandon
121 Dory Row
Thornbury ON
Canada N0H 2P0
905-717-6654
Dear David
Now I made you wait for quite a while. Please excuse.
I looked at your website and I think the techniques you are using in Bopoma Villiges are quite similar to what our partner
organisations do. In Haiti the term “Agroecology” is more widespread than bio-intensive farming or permaculture, but the principles (water harvesting, soil conservation and building, polyculture and nutrient cycling) are quite similar. I guess it could be
a good option for Eddy to get some training in Haiti as well as abroad – at least when it comes to topography there are quite big differences between Zimbabwe and Haiti.
I think one of your partner organisation would be particularly well positioned would be GRADAID (their website in French:
http://www.gradaid.org/). Their coordinator also runs a school technician and he regularly hosts interns and trainees. They are in Mare Rouge in the DĂ©partement Nord-Ouest.
Where is the organisation of Eddy based? Maybe it would be best to get trained in an organisation nearby, so it would
be the same climatically zone and he could easily keep in contact.
As you may know, these days travelling is not easy in Haiti. Even more than the Covid-outbrake, criminality and violence
is a problem.
There also is a network of organisations that intervene in Agroecology, called PADED. If you want, I could also inquire
if there is a member organisation nearby Eddy.
Are you still interested? How to proceed? Shall I put you in contact with the coordinator of GRADAID? As I think his English
is very limited, communication should be in French (or Kreyol).
Best wishes
Simon
**Thank you very much Simon! **
This is deeply appreciated. We will contact GRADAID and see will where it goes.
The reason we are hoping to send Eddy to the Bopoma Villages is that it is one of he best community development projects we have come across in our multiple years of international work.
Our particular focus in the Bopoma Villages is very narrow: food security and agriculture water security. However, Bopoma has achieved some remarkable results developing from scratch a very far broader based social development program in an extremely
remote and desperately poor area of Zimbabwe. As such we want him to have a multiple month exposure to a program that is now involved in 30 villages and expand his horizons as to what can be accomplished over a multiple year endeavour.
Thank you again,
David
David Brandon
121 Dory Row
Thornbury, ON
N0H 2P0
905-717-6654