Partners in Progress
Promoting and advancing sustainable development in rural Haiti
Rural Development and Our Haitian Partners
In order to carry out our principal mission of promoting and supporting sustainable community development in rural
Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF)
The Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF) is a peasant membership organization created in 1988 to empower the people of Fondwa and their neighbors to assume responsibility for their own lives and their rural communities. It now numbers more than 400 men and women who work together to create basic infrastructures and to provide facilities to help people access the services they need to develop their community sustainably. Prior to the tragic earthquake of January 2010, APF operated an extensive reforestation program, more than a dozen water catchment projects, a medical clinic and laboratory, a home for “at risk” children and youth, a radio station, numerous small businesses, a very successful elementary-secondary school, and the University of Fondwa 2004 (UNIF), Haiti’s only “university of the mountains”.
The earthquake destroyed the visible results of more than twenty years of development work in the Fondwa community. Reconstruction began within weeks and is ongoing.
Centre d’Inspiration Jeunesse (CIJ)
The Centre d’Inspiration Jeunesse (CIJ) is dedicated to educating and integrating youth in sustainable community development. Founded in 1995 by a group of Deslandes elders, the CIJ enrolls more than 400 children in an elementary school that is also the focal point of community life and hosts a wide range of youth enrichment activities and community events. In addition to the school the CIJ operates a reforestation program with tree nursery, a ten acre experimental farm (that provides food and income for the school), a youth soccer program, and a traditional drum and dance group. Valuing traditional communitarian ethics and social structures and building on the existing culture, the CIJ vision for Deslandes seeks “to develop an ecologically sustainable, economically self-reliant and vibrant community infrastructure”. Secondary Partnerships In addition to its primary strategic partnerships with the Deslandes and Fondwa communities PIP has developed several secondary partnerships through its “faith-based” Rich in Mercy division. These include communities in the Delmas and Solino neighborhoods of Port au Prince and the communities of Florenceau and Gwayavye in the Artibonite valley.
