SRDH Year in Review: 2022
SRDH team on the May 1 community tree planting event
Our Highlights:
4,398 trees planted in 10 community forests, 8 privately-owned farms, and 20 women’s gardens!
Two community education/ tree planting events completed
Trash can project started
20 women from Duchity participated in a women’s empowerment program
Our team grew to 16 people
SRDH received non-profit status in September!
Seedlings being transported to the plant site
Community Forests and Agroforestry
SRDH has begun planting 10 community forests in Duchity and the surrounding communes of Kay Boule, Leskav, Plenn Matin, Nan Sous, and Ba Duchity. Forests are sustainably used by community members for food, medicine, lumber, and charcoal. Additionally, these forests are planted with many native species, providing important habitat for Haiti’s wildlife.
Some of the tree species planted so far include: lemon, orange (two varieties), barbados cherry, papaya, mango, greenheart, spanish cedar, avocado, lnga vera, raintree, breadfruit, korosol, guava, princess tree, coffee, tamaren, and many more!
SRDH is simultaneously working with farmers to implement agroforestry on private farmlands to improve agricultural productivity and provide farmers with alternative income sources. Thus far, SRDH has partnered with 8 farmers.
SRDH team walking between community forest sites.
May 1 Community Reforestation Day
Each year on Haiti’s Agriculture and Labor Day (May 1), SRDH holds a community reforestation day. We educate youth and community participants on the importance of reforestation, how to plant trees, and how to care for them. This year, 135 youth participants planted 3250 trees with SRDH staff in community gardens throughout the greater Duchity area. To see how the event went, check out our Facebook video of the May 1 Event
May 1 participants and SRDH with seedlings.
Trash Can and Recycling Project
Duchity does not have a trash or recycling collection system. To address this issue, SRDH decided to build trash and recycling cans and educate the community on how to use them. We began building 15 trash cans. However, due to unrest in Haiti and resulting gas and supply shortages, we have not finished the project yet. We hope to complete this work in the beginning of 2023.
Baskets and brooms made from repurposed plastic and plastic bottles (left); trash and recycling bins (right).
Duchity Day Education Event
Duchity Day is an annual celebration for the community held from July 20 – 22. SRDH was present at the celebration, providing food and educating the community on our work. We talked about reforestation – how to sustainably harvest trees and how to care for them – and our trash and recycling project, telling people why using trash and recycling cans is important and how to correctly use them.
Cleaning around the seedlings.
Women’s Empowerment Program
Our partner, the Trees That Feed Foundation, worked with SRDH to provide 20 women from Duchity with training and microgrants to start an agroforestry-based business using breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis). This highly nutritious fruit rots quickly once it ripens, so processing fruits into flour preserves the harvest.
The women from Duchity were taught how to process breadfruit into flour and turn the flour into scone-like pastries (konparèt). They were also provided with information on how to manage a business based around the baking and sale of konparèt. Since SRDH does not have producing breadfruit trees or the means to process breadfruit into flour yet, the women have been buying konparèt from Trees That Feed Foundation to sell at market. So far, over 6,220 konparèt have been sold!
Women’s empowerment training with Trees That Feed Foundation (left); konparèt (center); konparèt distribution day (right).
