Fondwa: A Model of Rural Community Development Partners in Progress, in conjunction with the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF), offers a unique travel experience for those interested in learning first-hand about sustainable development in rural Haiti. Participants in the Fondwa: A Model of Rural Community Development program will visit Fondwa and engage in seminars and activities with the peasants of the region in order to learn from the peasants themselves. The program gives participants the opportunity to understand what building community and what sustainable development mean in the lives of rural Haitians and to appreciate the struggle of the rural poor to overcome poverty and misery. WHY FONDWA? Before 1988 peasants in Fondwa paid taxes but received no services.  The area lacked even the most basic infrastructure, roads, drinking water, health care, education, credit or techinical assistance.  In April 1988 the people of Fondwa created a project of integrated rural development by organizing themselves into what is now the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF). APF has provided the community of Fondwa and its 6 surrounding villages with a variety of improvements to their quality of life:  accessible water, a health clinic, primary school and kindergarten, adult literacy classes, a road, reforestation and soil conservation projects, a community store, a grain storage silo, a community radio station, a credit union and a guest center.  “APF is empowering people to assume responsibility for their own lives.” As it moves forward, APF is shifting its focus on building a sustainable economy in the area.  Projects already begun in partnership with technical advisors from Cuba and with FONKOZE, Haiti’s “alternative bank for the organized poor” include poultry and pig raising, a bakery, rope and chair making, and a community restaurant. EDU-TOURISM WITH THE APF IN FONDWA, HAITI DAY 1: Visit in Port-au-Prince. In the capital of Haiti you will have an opportunity to explore different parts of the city and learn about the struggle of the organized poor for political and economic democracy. DAY 2: Arrive in Fondwa. You will be welcomed at the community center and shown around Fondwa and see first-hand some of the accomplishments of the APF as well as enjoy  a cultural evening with the Fondwa Contradance Band, a folkloric dance group. DAY 3 to Day 5:  Variable Programs. Each day will focus on a different topic and will include work activities, visits, seminars built around the day’s topic. DAY 6: Return to Port-au-Prince. Transport to the airport and return home. SEMINARS will focus on these various topics: strategies for sustainable economic development, land use and environmental renewal, rural community health care (food, nutrition, traditional medicines), economic empowerment of children and women, and education for liberation. WORK ACTIVITIES may include work in a kitchen garden, cultivating or planting trees, preparing a Haitian meal, helping in the clinic preparing medicines, caring for pigs or chickens, fashioning chairs or rope, or working alongside a peasant family in their fields. VISITS around Fondwa will give opportunities to see the varied projects, accomplishments and struggles of the APF: the captured water sources, the radio station, clinic, and pharmacy, credit union, grain storage silo, the reforestation nurseries, the hen house, the porcerie, Fatima House Orphanage, the Commercial Center for Ti Machann (women street vendors). OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES. A group may select other activities from among the following, depending on the length of stay, interest, and time of the year:  local nature hikes, literacy classes, cock fighting, market day in nearby Tomb Gato, the coffee factory, soccer with the students of St. Antoine School, tour the vetiver oil factory in Okay, a day at the beach in Jacmel or a night in the home of a Cost of the Program The cost per person of the complete 5-day program* is (US) $520 and includes: · lodging in Fondwa and Port-au-Prince · three meals a day · transportation within Haiti · airport transfer · program activities · seminars and classes · informational materials · optional overnight in Jacmel ($ 50 additional) *  The price does not include airfare from the US. More information about the edu-tourism program in Fondwa is available from Dale Easley, PhD who is a PIP board member and who coordinates the schedule of educational tourism trips to Fondwa. Visit this Haiti Page for additional information: http://www.piphaiti.org/uno/