THE HAITI PLUNGE - (1984 - 2009)
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American students with the Haitian & American Student Work Exchange Program
( HASWEP ) that will be coming to the USA in the summer to work on staff at Camps Winadu in Pittsfield and Mah-kee-nac in Lenox. American student teams spend time each day teaching English to these students. Thirty two Haitians are participating in
this program. The goal is one hundred by 2010.
The Haiti Plunge, is a program of the Church Outreach To Youth Project, Inc. (COTY) in North Adams, MA. Founded in 1983 the organization is incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit with a mission to provide unique and challenging opportunities for youth to be of service to others and to make a difference in the world. The Haiti Plunge, an initiative of nine Berkshire high school youth, has evolved into six teams of twelve that travel annually to Haiti This is an educational experience that empowers youth from both cultures to positively influence their cultures. Since its inception the Haiti Plunge has encouraged sustainable development through agricultural cooperatives made up of nine villages tucked deep within the mountains of the central plateau.
The first team used machetes to clear all this area in order to begin erecting the
the cooperative infrastructure. To date the teams have raised over $700,000 to invest in this project.
The cooperative bakery built by the 1989 teams bakes bread daily for the people living in the high mountain regions. This bakery has reduced the number of miles people have to walk to get this food staple. Women come down from the mountains each day on mules and transport the bread to each of their villages.
Electricity and running water is non-existent in this geographical area. People have to walk 3 - 5 miles several times a day for a bucket of water. In 1986 the Haiti Plunge team capped a mountain spring in order to provide a clean water supply for the people. In February of 2006 a well rig was brought in to the cooperative center to dig a well next to the clinic. That project is still in progress.
Over 600 children attend one of the two primary schools built in two of the original villages. Children must walk 2 - 3 miles each way to attend one of the two schools. Since most children eat only once a day this is a difficult task but people in the area are committed to having their children in school if they can afford the luxury. The Haiti Plunge and the HASWEP program subsidize the school in order to minimize the tuition for parents. The 2006 monthly tuition for each child was 75 gourdes per child ( $2.00 USD ). Which is a considerable sacrifice for a family that makes less than $400 US annually.
Additional schools need to be built in order to enroll all of the eligible children.
A secondary school is in the planning stages and the Haiti Plunge is securing major donors to undertake that project in 2008. Presently students attending secondary school must walk 12-16 miles round trip to the city of Cabaret in order to go to school. Through the work exchange program many have been able to purchase mountain bikes to make the trip a little easier but the secondary schools in the city are too overcrowded. Additional schools need to be build throughout Haiti but particularly in the mountains. In the two village schools supported by the Haiti Plunge there is a 1/60 student to teacher ratio.
An on-going reforestation project was initiated in 1999 and is in its seventh year. Over
7,000 fruit and indigenous trees have been planted within the cooperative's 25-mile radius in order to control the erosion and to provide a secondary food source and cash crop for the cooperative. A recent tree nursery was established in the village of Brely to control erosion.
Maintaining the six mile road built by Petricca Industries, a large road building construction company in Pittsfield, MA. in 2000, is an ongoing project. especially after the rainy seasons. The students in the HASWEP Program are responsible for the upkeep of the road which connects six of the cooperative villages to Route 1, the major coastal highway from Port au Prince north. Eighty percent of Haiti is deforested and as a result the countryside loses one inch of topsoil each year during its long rainy season. Sustaining the road under these circumstances is one of the program's greatest challenges.
Another major Haiti Plunge project is the Habitat program which transforms mud huts into two room cement houses for families. Businesses, schools, churches and organizations donate the $1,500 to purchase materials and the families and both groups of students, Haitian and American assist in building the structures. The families collect rocks and sand before the construction takes place.
In 1998 a child's sponsorship program was set up for children to attend Haiti. For a
$100 annual donation a child in the village can attend the village school, receive
their school uniform and books. In Haiti the law requires that all students wear the uniform of the school they are attending, bush schools are no exception. Donors
receive a photo and a biography of the child they sponsor. As a result of generous
donations hundreds of children have learned how to read and write. Many go on to
secondary schools with the hope of someday becoming a part of the summer HASWEP which provides students financial resources to attend university or technical schools.
The HASWEP program continues to provide the impetus for development. 20%
of each participants income is donated to maintain the cooperative infrastructure,
particularly the two village schools. They are also researching the potential for a
micro-loan project for individuals to establish small businesses.
710 Berkshire youth have participated in this program. Each group includes not only students but medical personnel to conduct bush clinics, engineers, contractors, teachers and other professionals that can provide the expertise necessary for continued development.
The COTY Center has always maintained that no investment in youth is ever wasted. . The Haiti Plunge is only one of the center's programs that provides challenging opportunities for youth to grow and develop into caring, productive human beings.
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