Chris and Henry were again with Father Dutel in Gros Marin, and
they visited the parish school in Tete Source.
Peguy had arranged for a friend, Julio Forges, who speaks English, to
spend all week with Chris and Henry. He
stayed with them at Gros Marin and was an excellent translator and companion
for us all.
RECOCAS
Just on the outskirts of Cavaillon on the way to Les Cayes, a
regional coffee cooperative organization is finishing a processing plant. It is under roof and the mechanical equipment
that will be used for the final washing and grading was in the building
awaiting installation. The mission is to
reinvigorate coffee growers in the south by encouraging them to create
cooperatives in their localities where the first steps in preparing the beans
can take place. Those beans will then be
brought down from the mountains to this facility for final processing and
shipment out of the country. RECOCAS is
looking for assistance in developing an international marketing strategy and
program. KAMAK is one of the eleven
cooperatives making up the membership of RECOCAS.
COFIDES
We met with the administrative officers and workers of this
economic cooperative that functions much like a credit union. They have an office in Les Cayes and two
others in other jurisdictions of the Southern Region. They now have members in Cavaillon and three
other jurisdictions. Although this is a non-profit
and the officers are volunteers, there is a paid director and commercial
employees, yet their members are small business men and women who would not be
big enough to borrow from the banks. The average loan is for three to five
months at 2% interest on the outstanding capital. Peguy’s brother, Paul Ju1010my Jacques is the legal
council, as he is for KAMAK. He is a
volunteer on the COFIDES board. KAMAK’s
interest in working with COFIDES is to assist its members in procuring loans
when needed.
WORLD CONCERN
Tractors for Haiti, a non-profit created by Roger Oakland of
Ames, Iowa, has Chinese-built farm equipment available at very low costs at
several locations in Haiti, including World Concern in Les Cayes. We had included a tractor, plows, water pump,
etc. in the CRS matching grant project that was successfully funded. Our next stop in Les Cayes was, therefore, at
World Concern, a Haitian non-profit that has an “American University” in the
city and a farm station in nearby Torbuk.
World Concern Director, Pierre Duclona showed us three tractors that
they had available. Bob, who is a
developer with experience in machinery, and Pat, who was raised on a farm,
recommended that we purchase the larger of two sizes, a 35 HP tractor. Although the CRS share of the matching grant
was not available at that time, Pierre Duclona suggested we call Roger in Iowa
and see if he would accept payment in two installments.
We left Les Cayes for the agricultural station out of town to
see where KAMAK’s equipment operators would be trained. During that time I called Roger, who worked
out an agreement for two payments. We
were very pleased in as much as the rainy season was due to begin and the best
time to plow is February and March.
KAMAK is wiring $7,000 to Iowa this week with the rest to be paid upon
release of the CRS match. The larger
tractor cost $13,600 rather than the $6,200 of the smaller one, but it has a
front-end loader that Tractors for Haiti couldn’t sell separately. We want to help KAMAK pay the difference and
will advocate to St. Charles and others for the additional funds.
BUILD ON
On the outskirts of Les Cayes BUILD ON has its
headquarters. John Marek is the Country
Director and he is assisted by Clerge Garry, a building engineer and school
friend of Peguy. KAMAK has assisted
BUILD ON by doing community development with three communities in Cavaillon. Three schools have been built or added to,
including Citron (that we visited Tuesday), Roche Delmas, and Tete Source. Berard is another community in Cavaillon that
will probably participate in the program.
John says their mission is simply to find the “best communities with
the worst schools.” BUILD ON was founded
and led by a retired GE executive who has brought on board celebrities such as
Madonna and Justin Bieber. There is
plenty of money and the organization has projects around the world. Each school costs about $20,000 for materials
and a total of $32,000 if BUILD ON’s program costs are included. At this time they only do schools and a
follow-up alphabetization program for the parents. It is a three-part program that does basic
literacy for three months, followed by specialized training as requested by the
parents. Myriame and Peguy hope to
include training for the coffee growers at Citron who will participate in the
RECOCAS program.
Luncheon to thank Myriame and Peguy for their leadership
We invited Myriame, Peguy and his wife, and the Director of
COFIDES to a nice hotel in Les Cayes for lunch.
The owner is the “Délégé de L’Executif”, or regional head of the Haitian
government. He stopped by and welcomed
us to Les Cayes at the request of Peguy and Myriame. This lunch in a beautiful garden of a luxury
hotel showed us how the bourgeois live behind high walls in a world similar to
the one we enjoy in Arlington.
Martino - Meeting with KAMAK Executive Committee
After a few days running from meeting to meeting with Peguy and
Myriame, we ended up our visit to KAMAK and its partners by sitting down with
the steering committee in an office shared with another organization, just
north of Cavaillon in Martino. We
reviewed the projects that KAMAK has going, its alliances, and its
aspirations. One interesting product
that KAMAK owns is 1/2 Cx of vétiver, an essential oils plant whose roots are
used for making perfume and a high-grade aviation oil. It is also an excellent plant for soil
erosion control. At Berette, KAMAK has
over three Cx of land, most of which was made available by Fr. Lampy. 1/4 Cx of land was rented at Martino where
the seedlings are growing for planting later at Berette. Unfortunately, there is ample land to buy or
sell as many families no longer use the land.
KAMAK has plans to generate the money it needs to finance its
activities. For example, if the use of
the tractor is as profitable as planned, there will be enough revenue to pay
the operator, upkeep, and replacement costs.
The goat program should be self-supporting and the vétiver production is
an example of a profitable crop.
.JPG)
We have requested from KAMAK a financial report and summary
activities report, similar to the one we received in April of 2011. (see
appendix).
The Executive committee is composed of:
Myriame Jean Louis -
President - 3498 2250 myriame85@yahoo.fr
Jaques Peguy -
Technical Director - 3822 2394 peguy1308@yahoo.fr
Myrlene Jacques -
Member - 3651 8528 myrlene15@yahoo.fr
Girodier Willard - Vice President - 3626 8016
Clement Clemilhomme - Oversight Committee Member - 3796 - 6071
Rozier Markenley - General Secretary - 3832 - 4423 bigkennycool@yahoo.fr
Jaccé Elittu - Member - 3664 8341 jacceelettu@yahoo.fr
Dorsanvil Osnel - Asst. Secretary - 3370 2641
Joachim Emmanuel - Oversight Committee Secretary - 3718
9346
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