Last June, directly after the earthquake in Haiti, I met with Jean Maurice Buteau. Some call him the Mango man. He buys and sells Mangos directly from farmers all throughout the Haitian country side and is one of the largest Haitian exporters. His mango producers are from small orchards, are grown without pesticides and are simply amazing.
But, as much as I love mangos, this is not why I'm writing this blogpost...
We hear much about the good that others in the world are doing for Haiti. We hear about big donor organizations, we hear about non-profits, not-for-profits, aid organizations, governments, celebrities, etc. I have and do applaud this work, but there are more applause to go around.
What I'm most interested in these days is post-disaster reconstruction by those on the ground and those from the ground. In other words, who are the in-country, in-state, in-town heros who can teach us about what works on the ground in a post-disaster situation?
Here's a quick look at what Jean Maurice is doing:
1. Exploring ways to increase crop production and farmer profits in Haiti
2. Supporting a high school in Fond Jean Noel since the mid-1990s, including installing solar panels, computers and internet access. In addition, training programs by a Haitian IT company were provided.
3. Supporting local neighborhood sports teams in order to give kids access to after school activities.
http://www.mango-haiti.com/social.htm
These programs help Jean Maurice's company thrive because he needs to hire skilled workers, he needs to work with farmers who can produce high quality mangos and because we need more Haitian soccer players in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment