Visit to the Sinaes School ran by AMURT-Haiti

My first weekend in Haiti I met a LA graphic designer Josephine Close at Hotel Oloffson while having drinks with some AFH housemates. After a few glasses of mango juice and the typical ngo checklist/run down (name, how long are you here, what organization do you work for (I usually stop at level 3, as my non-affiliation with any organization seems to drift the typical conversation towards a more personal/informal discussion)), we got to talking about none other than composting toilets (ya i know, a little too personal). As it turns out, Josie was working for AMURT-Haiti (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team), the Haiti branch of an international humanitarian and development organization that promotes human-rights-based strategies to alleviate poverty and empower the poor through programs in the areas of Child Protection and Education, Rural Livelihoods, Disaster Risk Reduction, Social Organizations and Leadership, WASH, and Emergency Relief (see AMURT-haiti website). Basically, they were offering women/children focused programs for those living in the Sinaes camp (near Delmas 33) and happened to have a cutting edge composting/urban ecology toilet program (I will be writing more about this on my blog...www.synergeticaid.net). Today I got a chance to meet up with Josie and got to see this urban ecology/composting/vegetarian food/yoga/school programs and watch the composting toilet technology (donated by the organization Give Love) in action...