farm tour second stop : SOIL

it's overwhelming to think about the number of NGOs in Haiti. it was estimated that there were 3,000 NGOs here before the earthquake, so you can imagine how many there might be today.  and it's a painfully confusing concept to wrap my understanding around.  i find myself in a state of perpetual astonishment that millions of people do not have access to clean water, education, healthcare, waste removal, etc.  i have yet to get used to that as an outsider, and i hope i don't.

so, last sunday on our way to a few meetings with technicians, we had the pleasure of having a slumber party at the HQ of a pretty unique NGO who's a mile-deep in the world of waste sanitation here.  we visited the SOIL casa in Cap Haitian.  they have a house downtown, from where they host visitors and college groups, house their staff for their Cap Haitian projects, and (are you ready for this...) have the most amazing rooftop garden! so, why not call it part of the 'farm tour'?

a little more about SOIL (taken from their website):


Currently, only 16% of rural Haitians and 50% of those in cities have access to adequate sanitation facilities, by far the lowest coverage in the Western Hemisphere. People are forced to find other ways to dispose of their wastes, often in the ocean, rivers, ravines, plastic bags, or abandoned houses. At the same time, agricultural output is low due to poor soil fertility, soil erosion and lack of fertilizers.


Ecological sanitation is a low-cost approach to sanitation where human wastes are collected, composted and recycled for use in agriculture and reforestation. It simultaneously addresses many of Haiti’s most pressing issues: improving public health, increasing household income and agricultural productivity, mitigating environmental degradation, and providing low-cost sanitation for rural communities.


In response to the global food crisis, ecological sanitation is a resource for reestablishing the local food production economy that has been decimated by years of subsidized imports. 

so they build toilets, compost the materials (can we say that?) into soil, and reintroduce it via local reforestation and agricultural projects.

here's a pretty informative piece about them covered by Nicholas Kristof recently. it's worth the watch, even if for just a snippet of city-livin' Haitian style.