Physical Health Haiti Project #17164

Expanding Climate-Positive Sanitation in Haiti

by SOIL

Project Report | May 22, 2024
SOIL Expands its EkoLakay Operations into Karakol

By Christine Simek | Development Director

Sanitation is SOIL’s business and our passion, and we understand that the provision of immediate sanitation access is all the more critical at this moment in Haiti’s history, given the ongoing and complex humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold. Despite unremitting challenges, the SOIL team has continued its vital work in Cap-Haitien, ensuring that our sanitation service remains uninterrupted for our current EkoLakay customers. We have also been working to significantly grow the service over the past several months, despite consistent challenges. We are proud to say that we currently have 2,843 EkoLakay toilets installed, servicing over 17,000 Haitians – an increase of more than 300 households since the beginning of this year.

As part of our Results-Based Financing initiative, the SOIL sales team recently launched our EkoLakay expansion efforts into Karakòl, a commune in the Trou-du-Nord Arrondissement in the Nord-Est department, just east of Cap-Haitien where SOIL has not previously had an operational presence. The results have been impressive and encouraging – the team has installed a record 158 toilets since the beginning of March – providing 950 individuals who previously didn’t have access to a toilet with access to improved sanitation. Utilizing findings from our baseline surveys the team prioritized the most vulnerable households in high-risk flood zones, and was met with a lot of interest and a high demand for toilets. In the coming weeks, they will continue to focus their expansion efforts with additional targeted marketing and sales pushes in the neighborhood.

It is impossible to overstate the effect that the protracted political instability, increasing food insecurity, and endemic violence is having on the lives and minds of Haitian citizens. Imagine not knowing where your child’s next meal is coming from. Imagine being surrounded by worry and dread, confined to a system of inadequate health care and educational opportunities, inaccessible infrastructure, systematic violations of human rights, and severe energy shortages. And then imagine that daily life without a toilet.

The shame and vulnerability that comes with the lack of a dignified sanitation option is never eased or truly normalized. Access to sanitation is not only intricately tied to human dignity, but is also recognized by the United Nations as a human right. Today and everyday SOIL is proud to be doing essential work that promotes human dignity. Continuing on each day, particularly during this exceptionally complex and arduous moment in time, is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of our dedicated staff and the steadfastness of our local and global partners, and is an expression of profound hope.

To remain hopeful in bad times is motivated by the reality that human history is not only a history of despair, but also one of compassion, courage, kindness and love. It is this kind of hope that gives us the energy to move towards a greater, more unified good, even in the simplest of ways, with the understanding that it's the aggregate of all those small acts of kindness, of magnanimity combined with the tenacity to persist, that can change the world.

We will continue working to spread hope, health and dignity, one toilet installation, one individual and one household at a time. Please continue to hold Haiti in your hearts.

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Feb 2, 2024
SOIL's Quick Response in Limonade

By Christine Simek | Acting Development Director

The SOIL team in action in Cap-Haitien

Despite the ongoing political, social & health-related challenges that have made significant impacts on our staff and our customers over the past several years, there are also great achievements to celebrate, particularly among the members of our team in Haiti, who, despite the considerable hardships, continue to work tirelessly and together and have not lost hope. We are deeply grateful for each and every one.

One of the advantages of SOIL’s long-time work and deep roots in Haiti is that it enables us to respond quickly to a crisis, allowing us to provide critical and immediate support to families in and around Cap-Haitien when the need arises. Late last month, a doctor from a clinic in Limonade visited the EkoLakay offices to inform us of a concerning outbreak of diarrheal disease that had taken hold in his community. Knowing that we provide sanitation services there already, he asked if there was any way we could intervene to increase the number of households with access to the service to curb its spread. Our staff members sprang into action, understanding that our EkoLakay sanitation service is a critical part of mitigating many kinds of waterborne diseases.

During the holiday break, when the SOIL office is generally closed, the SOIL sales team went door to door with community health agents in Bord Mer Limonade, sharing information about disease mitigation, promoting good hygiene practices, and offering reduced pricing for EkoLakay toilets. We were pleased to learn from our conversations with members of the households we visited that there is strong interest in having a toilet, and an understanding that it's one of the best ways to slow the spread of disease and, due to high demand, we have since installed 54 toilets in the neighborhood! We will follow up with other interested families in the coming weeks and remain in contact with the clinic as they continue to monitor the situation.

SOIL was founded in the spirit of working side-by-side with Haitian citizens and within communities to build ecological sanitation solutions that could be community-led. That principle idea of community-driven impact continues to guide our work every day and has also provided a valuable framework for how we respond during emergency events that impact Haiti. The political instability and economic distress in Haiti will not immediately right itself and we recognize that daily life for most Haitians will remain full of adversity and uncertainty for the foreseeable future. But, as we have since our founding 17 years ago, SOIL will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti.

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Oct 16, 2023
SOIL Participates in Water and Sanitation Summit

By Christine Simek | Development and Communications Specialist

SOIL is pleased to have been a part of a new Water and Sanitation Sectorial Forum, focused on the northern region of Haiti, that convened for its inaugural session earlier this month. The goal of the forum is to strengthen consultation between local actors working in the areas of solid waste management, drinking water and sanitation, in order to support one another in the planning of interventions, increase the efficiency of resources mobilized, and encourage the participation of the local population around ongoing projects. These discussions signify a move towards much needed and greater collaboration in the WASH sector in Haiti.

In recent years, the city of Cap-Haitien and the northern region of Haiti have received a wave of migration of populations from other departments of the country, largely due to ongoing insecurity in Port au Prince and surrounding area. The population increase in the north has put a strain on the already limited resources and aggravated the deficiencies of local public infrastructure and basic social services, such as roads, electricity, solid waste collection, water supply, drinking water and sanitation.

The new sanitation sectoral coordination has outlined the specific objectives of the group as:

To organize a formal space for communication and exchange of information and good practices
To map the main projects and programs underway in the target sectors
To share and disseminate relevant information and data, to facilitate decision-making and the coordination of actions relating to the management of solid waste, drinking water and sanitation

Two of SOIL’s staff members presented to the group of key actors, highlighting SOIL’s EkoLakay activities for the provision of household sanitation in the neighborhoods of Cap-Haitien.

At SOIL, we understand the power of teamwork and are always seeking to collaborate with local stakeholders who provide valuable input and strategic cooperation as we all work towards the common goal of providing safe, affordable sanitation to the people of Haiti.

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