Haiti Vetiver Water Project

 

1) A potable water system that will serve hundreds of families in the area, as well as the local schoolhouse adjacent to the well site. This water system includes an enclosed 600+ ft tubewell, a solar-powered pump, and a steel tower with elevated high-capacity water storage tanks to serve the community for many years to come. This project will provide water for the first time in a community where a three-hour round-trip voyage down the mountain and back—usually by young children—was required to provide water.

 

2) A new vetiver warehouse building and office where cooperative members will have a common gathering point, an office, and a warehouse to safely lock and store harvested vetiver roots along with cooperative owned-tools and materials was also built. This building will help facilitate a common collection point, increasing harvest collection and improving delivery times for vetiver roots, helping to safeguard oil quality and content and ensure growers receive premium payment for the high-quality oil harvested from their material.

 

3) New furniture (locally sourced) for the local community school, including 36 student desks and five teacher tables, was donated to equip the school. With an increasing number of students with the new water system reducing the amount of time needing to fetch water daily, as well as improved household income enabling more children to attend, the school will continue to grow and furniture is badly needed.

 

These initiatives, linked to our on-going responsible sourcing program in Haiti and many other countries, are just a few examples of how HHF is making an important difference and creating sustainable, long-term impacts on these partner sourcing communities.