My husband Greg and I launched Brooks Pepperfire Foods 6 years ago. Our mission statement includes ensuring that any money we spend has an ultimate impact on the lives of the people those dollars touch. We’re a food company so, it makes sense to go direct to farmers both here at home and abroad. In 2007, we were given a mandate by Transfair Canada to create the market for Fair Trade chilli peppers.
As you can imagine our lives have become inextricably linked to many people, businessmen and farmers alike, both here and in Haiti whose sole enterprise is to spend their dollars in Haiti and market their products so that Haiti can pull itself from it’s crushing poverty.
Haiti prior to the earthquake was in a difficult situation. The average income for over 80% of the population is less than 85 cents per day making it the poorest Nation in our hemisphere.
206 years ago, on January 1st, the Haitian slaves declared independence. Since then in concert, France, England and the US have managed to cripple Haiti with a combination of religious and financial oppression. Throw in a little home grown despotism and it’s a wonder that Haiti is as well off as they are.
It is for these reasons in particular that we have been working with several organizations to help Haitians to do business so that they are strong enough to stand on their own two feet. The crippling devastation of the earthquake does not make our jobs any easier and in fact has made it far more difficult. But it makes it all the more important that we continue in these efforts.
Where prior to the earthquake, we were doing business with farmers, now all business has been stopped. No commercial flights have been allowed in or out of Haiti except through Port-au-Prince airport since the earthquake. We expect this situation to be alleviated shortly and are lobbying Government.
What does this mean? It means that the US is now controlling all of the air traffic going into the capital allowing only relief air traffic in or out. They have taken a 15 flight a day airport and now have 150 flights a day landing, which is nothing short of miraculous, given the situation. The problem is that the vast majority of these flights land, disembark their passengers and cargo and then return from whence they came empty. Yet, Haitian farmers have had to discard the fresh produce that would have shipped over the last two weeks. Nobody is offering aid to these businessmen, because they are not considered to be at risk because of the quake. They are not even being considered as victims of the quake given their locations, well removed from the quake zone. In addition to this, the other two operating airports, Les Cayes and Cap Haitien have been shut down for “security” reasons and no commercial flights are occurring there either. So, even though neither of these areas are in the “requiring relief” zone, they have been shut down. Worse, BECAUSE they are not in the quake zone, no aid has been sent to these areas.
Since the Quake, over 250,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince for their home villages. Villages, which, they originally left because therein lay no future but subsistence existence. Life in Haiti prior to the quake was not easy for these people, now 2 or 3 people per family has returned to an area where the population was barely surviving and have come without belongings, food nor water and many are injured. These urban areas are not equipped to handle disaster refugees and are NOT receiving any aid BECAUSE they are not in the Quake zone. We fear that there is a food crisis of epic proportion looming for Haiti, making it all the more imperative that we continue to work with local businesses and farmers to do what we can.
I do not have all of the answers, I am only a small company doing a small portion of my business with Haiti. What I do know is that continuing to do what we have been doing, and this on a larger scale than ever before is a drop in the bucket that is still the future of Haiti, for us, that goal has not changed, in essence, but it has become infinitely more important.
I was supposed to participate in a plenary meeting last Thursday night, organized by Lyne Pelchat, that would help our regional business associations decide what they were going to do to about Haiti. Prior to the earthquake most people had no clue where Haiti is, even in Quebec where lives one of Haiti’s largest Disapora communities.
Unfortunately, we had a blizzard on Thursday and driving 45 minutes anywhere in good weather is a chore, so, I opted to stay home and instead, sent this statement to the organizer of the meeting. My intent was to give them an idea of what I know and what they are up against in choosing to make decisions on their direction. This is that speech.
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In the quake zone they tell me that the immediate need is still for medical supplies and personnnel, water, shelter, cash, and food, in that order. There are many schools in the area, funded by the diaspora and supporters like our local Fraternite Haiti, SOPUDEP School, (Sawatzky Family Foundation) and Ecole du Village in Ile-a-Vache, Haiti, who have become refugee centers or hospitals, caring for the sick and helping feed those in their community. These organizations are best suited for funding BECAUSE they are in the community and are in position to disseminate the aid. They do not have to move the aid into place, so to speak. Fraternite Haiti runs into difficulty because they are accustomed to moving funds into the country via human transport. SOPUDEP although able to send money to Haiti is limited to a maximum of $500 per day transfer. We have been lobbying Government for the last two weeks to eliminate this blockage. It has not been a difficulty yet, because Rea Dol, administratrice for SOPUDEP has a reputation in the community that has allowed her to get credit from the suppliers, which is most fortunate. Ultimately, though, lack of shelter is this community’s greatest problem. Sopudep is currently participating in the relief effort at a camp of over 16,000. These organizations exist without support from international aid agencies. Future long term needs include rebuilding homes, schools, hospitals and places of business.
Along with Sally White of The Old Bank House in Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland have been working the last two weeks with Jeffrey Bruno, the son of the owner of Haiti’s number one radio/tv station Radio Tele Ginen and although they have managed to get back on the air using a mobile broadcasting truck, the majority of their equipment has been destroyed and they are still primarily off the air. Their once four-story building is now a pile of rubble. To continue functioning, even without a replacement building, this business, which was thriving the day before the quake and employing over 200 people, is suddenly all but non-existent. They have asked for cameras and microwave equipment that will help them get their system functioning again and help get their reporters and journalists working again.
Where we were working on building schools that would withstand hurricanes and possible Tsunamis, the existing school buildings will all have to be rebuilt, some like Ile-a-vache were in need of being moved out of the “danger” zone, prior to the earthquake. These needs have not gone away and indeed some of the existing schools, such as SOPUDEP are no longer useable and must be entirely replaced.
Bel Soley has been working on a project that sees schools partnered with farmers for their needs in an agreement with Municipal government, and CAPAS, a reforestation and agricultural training group (NGO).
These farmers were in need of farming equipment, agricultural tools, seeds, shade cloths for nurseries, water purification systems prior to the quake and this need has not gone away, but become all the more important.
We anticipate that within 6 months, Haiti will face a food shortage. These farming groups are best poised to take advantage of aid monies that will see this part of Haiti’s restructuring already in the advanced planning stages continue.
We at Brooks Pepperfire Foods and our partners believe that it is imperative that our model continue to not be one of charity to but rather one of opportunity. Job creation in order to build a sustainable Haiti is imperative. Both our partners and we hope that Haiti will be viewed as a partner and not just a receiver in the rebuilding process.
It is our considered opinion that these groups are best poised to act in helping Haiti and as business people, it is in our best interest to focus on groups whose underlying principal is to build Haiti. We feel that although the large organizations bring with them a sense of “strength” and “security”, that they are so large and inefficient as to be unable to do anything other than to move slowly.
An excellent example of this is the hospital that Konpay.org organized in Jacmel, for the two weeks it took for Medecins sans Frontieres to simply arrive on the scene, volunteers worked to set up and stock a field hospital with a medical team and supplies.
Our teams on the ground tell us that although the news is telling us that aid is getting out, it is not, it is still sitting on the tarmac at the airport. Our teams have offered to carry the aid out by foot, but have been turned away. Which is why organizations like Konpay.org are so all-fired important.
I was told yesterday morning that aid to areas other than the Quake zone is not being considered, so it will be up to groups like Konpay to get that aid out. Which is why we choose to work with them.
Operation Ayiti will be launching several commercial projects over the next few months in conjunction with these organizations as well as with Coffee producers such as Noula Coop and Greenland Corp., on both the Central Plateau and north shore areas of Haiti. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again; Doing business with Haiti is our best way to help ensure a future for Haiti. We are hoping to form solid business relations between the community and Haiti that will see Vaudreuil-Soulanges make a concerted effort to do business with Haiti and in this way, will build a future for these people and this country.
