The NGO (aka: the art of networking, asking and begging)

Haiti ‘foreign aid’ is flooded with money. The BIG guys have billions of dollars allocated by governments and large global organizations to spend here. The problem is that the BIG guys are sometimes slow to respond, beaucratic and inefficient. We, on the other hand are tiny. There are at least a few hundred (but I suspect thousands) of small organizations / projects etc in Haiti. Buildling a single school somewhere doesn’t take much more than good will and some friends that want to help. Many of the schools are simply a tent in someone’s yard. Many are in a hut near a church etc. There are numerous organizations that are worrying about clean water, health, kids, micro financing, small businesses, infrastructure. There are even organizations that are focusing on animal rights in Haiti. Some organizations have a financial back. Some (like ours) rely on finding large donors, applying for grants and making partnerships with other initiatives that have resources and are looking for places to invest. For example:

Some NGO rep, any occasion, PaP: “I have an empowerment program for young women by teaching them karate”.

Any Prodev person happening to stand nearby: “We have a community center in a village. Did you ever think of the huge benefits of teaching village women karate?”

Of course most of the relationships are more serious than that. Both the UN and the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), and probably others spend a lot of efforts on connecting people with joint interests and creating opportunities for people to meet. If you’re a small organization, and invited to the right places, and have the ability to understand how to make a puzzle from pieces that don’t really fit and how to convince people that you’re serious, you have a chance to get quite a lot of things done just from bringing in the right contacts.

For example, last week the following came to visit our school:

-         financed project for teaching young people life skills through construction (possible partnership: set up a construction training program in our vocational school)

-         financed project to run teen-aged girls social groups (possible: use our school / community center for this activity)

-         Farming Training initiative (early stage. Community activity, school activity, job creation opportunity, feeding opportunity all an option).

-         Financed initiative for short term infrastructure activities (possible: help us with the flooded school yard)

-         Community empowerment initiative (possible: join in running the community center / creating activities there)

-         Water filteration organization (will probably not happen as it is also not financed)

There may have been others. It’s sometimes hard to follow. But you get the point – our tiny NGO is busy getting as much help as possible from anyone that can give it with plans constantly adjusting to whatever is available. Somewhat unorganized – but gets things done.

This is going to be a kindergarten

Middle / Vocational School building

A basketball court

Driving (GTA* Port-au-Prince)

After the Christmas vacation we decided it was time for another step towards independence and started driving ourselves. We did drive in Haiti before, but not inside the city. The roads are very steep. Usually unpaved. With many holes. They are two way, but often not wide enough for two cars. The cars are huge (including ours), usually some kind of 4x4. There are people on the side of the roads. Walking, selling, buying, working. The side of the roads is often ON the road. Children try to cross, but there are no organized places for that. People are crossing with heavy loads of merchandize on their heads, or women with large buckets of water on their way back from the well (both inside the city and outside). At night there are no lights, and the dark skin color of the population only makes it harder. In addition there are tap-taps which are small pickup trucks that act as mini buses. They usually are packed full of people that are many times expected to jump in and out without the pickup coming to a full stop. Every little disturbance becomes a huge traffic jam in the streets that are already very jammed 80% of the time. And there are many accidents both due to the conditions and the fact that road rules are somewhat vague and the way to aquire a driver’s license is to pay someone to print it for you.

So, we drive. Carefully. Already scratched the car a few times, but all during parking - probably due to a combination of the size of the car and too much worrying about the many other elements of the street. We like being able to control our schedule, and not having someone always waiting for us, but after many years behind the wheel and being a confident driver – in Haiti I’m a ‘new driver’ all over again.

* GTA- Grand Theft Auto is a popular video game. I’ve never played it, but the stories I’ve heard remind me of what’s happening when I drive here.