Generating Organic Compost for Farming in Haiti

SOIL’s waste treatment site in northern Haiti, Mouchinette, now has 12 compost bins and three more under construction. We have also have new green uniforms for our staff as well as a huge hangar that was just constructed to store our cover material in bulk quantities. These improvements are extremely exciting to the whole SOIL team, but especially for the six men who make up the compost team.

Their work is unglamorous. It may even be the definition of unglamorous for many people. But these six guys are no short of sanitation superheroes in the eyes of SOIL and the surrounding community.

Why? They take something that is deadly, a leading killer of children under five in Haiti, and transform it into an organic, money-making, earth-nourishing resource. SOIL’s EcoSan system, turning poop into compost, take the problems of access to dignified sanitation and waterborne diseases from fecal contamination, and turn them into the solutions to the agricultural crisis, all while boosting the local economy.

Andre Vedrine has been a member of SOIL’s waste treatment and composting team since 2013. He has a small frame, a big heart, and seven children. He said, “When I first came, Mouchinette was tiny. Now it’s getting huge! This isn’t a game we’re playing here—this is serious! It used to take two and a half weeks to fill up a compost bin; Now we’re filling up the bins every four days.”

Andre said that it’s through teamwork that makes it possible. “We’re a collective. We accomplish everything as a group.”

With nearly 500 household toilets in northern Haiti, it is critical that we have the funding necessary to treat all wastes that we collect. We’re thankful for supporters like you that allow for our team to do this necessary work with more ease and efficiency! 

Links:

• Like SOIL on Facebook!
• Join the conversation on Twitter @SOILHaiti