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  • From: Evan Schoepke <thejulianeffect@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] - Responding to the Haitian earthquake (Andrew Jones)
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:53:21 -0800

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrew Jones <ajventure04@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Subject: Nouvelle Vie Haiti - Responding to the Haitian earthquake

Haiti update from Andrew Jones.

Dear friends and colleagues,
Many thanks for all your expressions of concern and support regarding the
situation in Haiti, I know we all share a concern for what can be done in
order to contribute to an effective response and long-term abundance and
real security for the immediately affected and wider population of Haiti. I
spent a month with Shenaqua in Haiti last summer working with the
Internation Association for Human Values, and teaching two permaculture
courses there. Our feedback thus far from Haiti is that all our graduates
are safe in terms of immediate earthquake impacts. We are working on a
medium term program to support our local graduates in carrying out trauma
counseling using tried and tested approaches championed by IAHV, as well as
longer-term, permaculture-based strategies to help promote local food, and
water security, safe housing etc. A general program description follows
below:

Nouvelle Vie *Haiti*, an ongoing project of the International Association of
Human Values (IAHV- www.iahv.org). IAHV is an international humanitarian and
educational NGO that aims to revive human values that transcend religious,
ethnic and cultural differences. IAHV along with its sister organization,
The Art of Living Foundation, has conducted effective trauma relief programs
addressing the psychosocial needs of disaster victim in numerous
post-conflict and natural disaster situations around the world, including
the 2008 hurricanes in Haiti, the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 the South Asian
tsunami in 2004, the Kosovo conflict, and many
others, and have served many thousands of individuals through these efforts.

IAHV's Nouvelle Vie *Haiti* has over the past two years conducted youth
leadership, sustainable agriculture, and entrepreneurship training,
impacting 350 young adults from 5 regions of Haiti: Cap Haitien, Mirebalais,
Hinche, Carrefour and Les Cayes. The earthquakein Haiti has now devastated
the country and our youth leaders on the ground in Haiti. We are preparing
to undertake a new mission to Haiti. Our objectives are to provide immediate
trauma relief to the affected population and aid workers, and to mobilize
young adults of Haiti by establishing the Nouvelle Vie Youth Corps, a body
of 50 Haitian youth committed to serving their country for 2 years. The
Youth Corps will receive the training and support necessary to take
leadership roles in serving the Haitian people, developing powerful skills
in trauma relief, food and water security, and appropriate technology and
construction. Nouvelle Vie will provide training and financial, material,
and programmatic support to the Corps.

In the coming weeks we will send teams of IAHV trauma relief workers to
assemble and organize our existing youth leaders, recruit additional youth
leaders, and deliver trauma relief programs. Through participation in
organizing and delivering these programs, we will train our Youth Corps to
deliver trauma relief services, and to become fully certified teachers of
The Art Of Living Foundation's stress-reduction and self-development
programs. Youth Corps members will also receive on-ground training in
implementation of small-scale home and community gardens, design and
construction of rainwater catchment and sanitation systems (composting
toilets), and appropriate building design and construction. Basic training
will be conducted at the Youth Corps headquarters by training leaders who
are expert in the area of sustainable design and permaculture, with
extensive experience in developing world urban and peri-urban design. While
basic trainingis taking place, Corps members and training leaders will
developprojects to install garden, sanitation, water, and building systems
tosupport IDP settlements, households, communities, and organizations.

One of the components of our strategy is the translation of the IDEP
Permaculture Resource Manual into French/Haitian Creole in oder to provide
accessible local tools to those who will be rebuilding their communities.
We expect to support this process with permaculture related trainings and
workshops.

For any of you wishing to be involved in this effort, through donation,
direct involvement or for consideration as part of the team, I recommend
that you keep up with the program via the IAHV website (www.iahv.org), or
through direct contact with Joshua Tosteson: jlt94@post.harvard.edu

You can access IDEP's English permaculture and community disaster management
reources as free downloads from the IDEP site, they have been developed
following extensive community rebuilding experiences in East Timor and Aceh,
Indonesia:
http://www.idepfoundation.org/idep_downloads.html#b<http://www.idepfoundation.org/idep_downloads.html%23b>
For those of you wanting more detailed and technically oriented reports and
updates on Haiti, I recommend the site:
www.reliefweb.org<http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm>

Lastly, the Haiti earthquake serves to remind us of the importance of
disaster preparedness for all of us so that we can be effective in response
when disaster strikes. I have 8 pages of disaster preparedness notes for
download at my nascent website: www.ajventure.com
They are currently being posted, should be up by Jan 21, otherwise - check
back soon!

Best wishes,

Andrew Jones

Synergy Life Design
ajventure@gmail.com
Skype: ajventure
www.ajventure.com
As of December 30, 2009 - I'll be based in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and
checking email weekly. Love to hear from you and appreciate your patience.

Baja BioSana - www.bajabiosana.com
Deepening Roots - Sustainability & Wellness with Art of Living:
www.deepeningroots.org <http://www.deepeningroots.org/Home.html>
New York Accommodation - check us out: Zen
Den<http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11534>




--
The obstacle is the Path.
-Zen Proverb

I write at www.punkrockpermaculture.com



  • [permaculture] - Responding to the Haitian earthquake (Andrew Jones), Evan Schoepke, 01/20/2010

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