RESPE: Ayiti Balan Project – Research and Engagement Supporting Poverty Elimination
RESPE: Ayiti is a collaboration of the Coalition, Tufts University undergraduates and Haiti’s Balan community, established in September 2007 by Franklin Dalembert, Executive Director of the Coalition, and Sherman Teichman, Director of the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), at Tufts. RESPE also stands for Research and Engagement Supporting Poverty Elimination and is the Haitian Creole word for respect, a central tenet in volunteers’ approach to community development work in Balan.
Balan is located in rural northern Haiti some five miles from Cap Haitien, the country’s second largest city. Aproximately 20,000 residents live in Balan’s five regions. The fishing industry, once a lucrative option for residents, has significantly diminished in recent decades. As a result, many residents launch their own small businesses or work as farmers.
One source of support for the local farming community is the gwopman, local farming collectives, designed to protect farmer’s rights and provide support for its members. Other social structures of support include gatherings at markets, churches and local soccer field. Through konbits (rotating farming networks) and mutuelles (monetary lending pools) residents support one another and the community as a whole.
In collaboration with its RESPE: Ayiti partners, the Coalition has been working to fundraise for a new health clinic in Balan. This past summer, Lince Semerzier of the Coalition, as well as Tufts University students, engineers and other academics traveled to the community to assess the future health center site for solar panels, which will work alongside generators to power the clinic.
Upon the project’s completion, Balan residents will be able to develop professionally-run health workshops and create community-health networks that draw from local residents’ immense social capital. Fundraising will continue over the next months for a winter 2010 groundbreaking. For more information on the project and donations for the health clinic initiative, please email respe.boston@gmail.com or visit www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/programs/respe.