Aleme Nicolas Benissoit – Student at Miami Dade College Talks about His Agro-Ecology Work

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Today’s guest on EcoAlert with Nadine Patrice is Aleme Nicolas Benissoit, a Miami-Dade College student learning agro-business techniques to help in the redevelopment of Haiti.

 

Open Letter to friends from Aleme:

As we begin a new year, I want to take a moment to let you know how very much I have appreciated having you as my sponsors for my Agro Ecology studies. I am thankful for all that I have received from you. It has meant so much to have sponsors like you.

After we all had a wonderful moment at the fundraising party for my school last year, I am so grateful to get back to you and inform you what I have done so far. Since my time in Miami, I have been volunteering with several organizations to gain more experience in agro-ecology. I have worked at tree plantings, tree pruning, sustainable agriculture, and habitat restoration with Audubon Society under supervisor Garry Hunt, Earth learning garden (Dr. Mario Yanez), Tremendous Miami (Amy Creeckmur) and Miami Dade County (Joy Klein). I was selected to attend Weston A. Price conference in Fort Worth, Texas which focused on, nurturing therapies and health doctors, traditional alternative medicine, Lacto-fermentation, campaign for real milk, pasture livestock, nutrient-dense foods, soy alert, nutrition myths, bio-dynamic farming and composting.

Also, I was able to spend two weeks interning at Twin Oaks, an organic farm in Northern Florida owned by Renee Savory. During my internship I helped Renee build chicken tractors, made jellies and preserves, and helped in the Seaside market, Florida, fed the animals, made compost, worked in her organic garden and processed chicken.

I was also able to spend two weeks with my family in Haiti. I shared some ideas with them such as, nutrition, how to eat healthy food, grow organic garden, build chicken coop, involve in community engagement They were so excited to see me, and I was so happy to see what they have been doing during my absence especially at the ecological reserve where my mentor Jane Wynne is working hard at the farm. She’s impressed me by the way she grows strawberries in recycle gallons, tires, and raised beds. In addition, she is working hard with young kids, students and different groups teaching those more about soil conservation, composting, recycling, plant propagation and reforestation.

Recently, I received a scholarship from Earth Learning garden to attend the first financial perma-culture and local business summit in Florida. I have experienced how to run a community garden and a local business. Here are a few key words I wrote down: policies and procedures, location, tools, seeds. Soil qualities, maintenance, eat local food, food security; make profit on sale, benefit this garden will provide for the community, make connection with people, community engagement and so on. It was a wonderful movement for me. I talked to one of the key note speakers, David Rose, who has worked with united Nation in Haiti and established an Eco village for about 35 000 people. David Rose and the other people I have met at the summit are very willing to help in the field of permaculture. I think the connection I have made with them will be helpful.

Last summer, I completed 3 credit hours in Algebra. Last fall, I completed 13 credit hours in the required Biology1, grades: lecture B, laboratory A, Pre –Calculus and Trigonometry B, 5 credits combined classes, Human Growth and Development A. This semester, I am currently taking the required Chemistry 1025, 3 credits, Calculus 1, 5 credits, Reading2, 4 credits. After I complete my first two years with a total of 60 credit hours, I hope to transfer to Florida International University so that I may get a degree in Agro Ecology. I had a meeting with Dr. Baht and Professor Ron Mossman from this department who are advising me to get in when I will be ready to transfer. As I believe is the first step on a path to a sustainable environment where the soil is stabilized, people have food, and all other benefits.

Your kindness and especially your generosity will continue spreading all over Haiti especially my home town Kenscoff. Thank you again. I appreciate all that you do and the opportunity you will continue to give me to go to college.

Aleme Nicolas Benissoit
Student at Miami Dade College

 

 

Alison Thompson and Albert Gomez Talk about the Maya Nut Initiative in Haiti

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Nadine Patrice and Alison Thompson

Alison Thompson was born and raised a preacher’s daughter in the Australian bush. She is a former Mathematics school teacher and medic. In 1990 Alison moved to New York City and became an Investment Banker on Wall Street, later enrolling at NYU film school studying film making. On Sept 11th, 2001 Alison roller bladed to Ground Zero and became a volunteer rescue worker and stayed on to volunteer for 9 months. She is the Founder and Director of CTEC which she created after the 2004 Asian disaster. CTEC is the first and only Tsunami Early-warning Center in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka she also ran a busy field hospital and helped rebuild a village for 3000 people. Since 2001 Alison has been a full time volunteer humanitarian and is fondly known in Sri Lanka as the ‘Angel of Galle.’ In 2008 Alison’s documentary film called ‘The Third Wave’premiered in the Cannes film festival hosted by Sean Penn and Bono. In January 2010, Alison flew to Haiti with actor Sean Penn and ten doctors to help with the earthquake aftermath. There the volunteers managed an ‘Internally Displaced Peoples’ camp and field hospital with over 65,000 people. Alison then founded ‘We Advance’ with Actress Maria Bello which deals with gender based violence in Haiti. Her new book is called ‘The Third Wave- a volunteer story’ published by Random House-available world wide. In 2010, Alison was awarded the Order of Australia, the highest civilian medal awarded by Queen Elizabeth the 2nd of England for her volunteer work and her contribution to mankind. She was also awarded the ‘Medal of Excellence’ by General Trombitas and the USA Army 82nd Airborne elite. In July of 2012 Alison was appointed the first Ambassador to the Haiti Ministry of the Environment where she is involved with a campaign to help combat reforestation and hunger through the planting of one billion trees for Haiti. She also continues to work at her We Advance clinic in the Cite Soliel slums. Her hobbies include Argentine tango, fencing, surfing, soccer, cricket, camping, volunteering, piano, chess, poetry, baseball, elephant polo and laughing.

Little by little the bird builds it’s nest, she said at the conclusion of the interview. It was the slogan for the Earth Summit, and symbolic of the struggle in Haiti for environmental restoration and general survival.

  • She has traveled to all the continents of the world, including the South Pole.
  • She has been charged by 12 hippos, 9 elephants, 2 Rhinos. Has come face to face with a hyena at 4 a.m. and had 8 lionesses sleeping outside her tent.
  • She grew up surfing and swimming with the dolphins.
  • Is an Argentine Tango dancer.
  • Plays catcher on a men’s baseball team.
  • She spent the past year of 2005 running a refugee camp and rebuilding a village in tsunami affected Sri Lanka.
  • Is the founder and creator of the first Tsunami Early-warning Center in Sri Lanka called CTEC. CTEC was created in response to the DEC. 24th 2004 Tsunami.
  • After the 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, Alison went with actor Sean Penn and ten NY doctors over there to help. They ended up running JPHRO, an IDP camp with over 65,000 people and a medical hospital. Alison is a founder of We Advance with Actress Maria Bello and Aleda Frishman. We Advance is a gender based violence NGO protecting brutally raped women and children of Haiti.
  • In 2010, Alison was awarded the Order of Australia, the highest civilian medal awarded by Queen Elizabeth the 2nd for her work during the tsunami and her contribution to mankind.

For more on Alison, click here: Alison Thompson and The Maya Nut Initiative: Sustainable Enterprises for the Women of Haiti!

Albert Gomez joined the conversation, talking about the Maya Nut Initiative, a plan to plant the seeds of tree known as the “canopy tree” because it can grow to more that 100 feet tall.

Here are a couple of additional links:

Haiti’s Trees and Forests

Chokoguo

Maya Nut Institute (Facebook)

Sadhana Forest, Haiti

Growing Forests in Haiti

Haiti Earth Summit was a Great Success

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The initial reports on the Haiti Earth Summit indicate it was a success. According to the organizers, people are eager to unite and learn as much as they can about planting trees, since the know first-hand that many of the country’s problems, such as natural disasters (flooding and mudslides), food shortages and poverty, can be traced back to rampant deforestation.

The Friday night film about reforestation was packed. Wangari’s tree movement inspired those in attendance.

One ten year old boy said to Alison Thompson, one of the organizers, “I really liked the film. I do understand the problems we have and I need to show this film to all the people in my village. I will lead them!”

The Saturday conference at the Karibe was a real success and grassroots people arrived from as far as Cape Haitian. Fifty thousand maya nut seeds were distributed to people from all over the country and they have been writing to us and telling us where they have planted them, said Ms. Thompson.

A highlight of the conference was a visit from former Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph who gave an inspiring speech, which included the work of his organization’s Dollar-A-Tree-4-Haiti program. He said they are busy planting trees all over the country. The next day they were scheduled to be in Kenscoff and was looking for more volunteers.

On 1 May 2013, President Martelly and many tree-oriented organizations began a program to plant one million trees throughout Haiti in 8 key areas.

Another highlight of the summit, continued Ms. Thompson, was the Brinkman Foundation (the largest re-forestors in the world) and are a good humble family group who have just finished planting a billion trees in Canada. They have a very good system so they came to teach Haiti about what they have learned and we all sat spell bound and we learned so much we didn’t want them to finish talking.

Sunday, Earth Lab Day was a huge success. Haiti Communitaire showed us many new sustainable ideas that can work in Haiti, such as solar stoves.

Claudia Apaid and her team at Sow-a-Seed at Carolines Prodov school in Cite Soliel was a smash hit! The trees were sponsored by the Clinton Foundation. The kids had a blast!

We planted hundreds of bamboo and fruit trees. There were plenty of sunburned volunteers. The whole summit was a success and we want to follow through and build on it for next year and also add on a Haiti youth summit.

I also want to mention the great Saturday night party with Canadian band The Boom Booms, along with other featured Haitian artists, and the Cite Soleil break dancing group. They were amazing and are available for hire.

Haiti – Environment : A socially responsible reforestation project [Haiti Libre]

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o-DOUBLERAINBOW-WYOMING-900.jpgDuring their recent visit to Haiti, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus , founder of Yunus Social Business, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Unite, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have announced the launch of a new social initiative called Haiti Forest.

As part of this partnership, which aims to solve social and environmental problems in Haiti by bringing sustainable, productive and socially responsible forests to the country, 10,000 hectares of land are being promised by the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment to develop this initiative, in the Artibonite and northern part of the country.

Haiti Forest has full support of the Government of Haiti and is in line with the priorities of the Government to support long-term reconstruction efforts, especially those that create jobs and promoting economic opportunities. The multi-year project will provide affordable food, timber, and employment in Haiti, and will be organized as a Social Business – a company set-up for maximizing social benefit rather than private profit.

“Through this partnership, we hope to create a replicable model for programs that demonstrate long-term, positive social and environmental impact as well as economic benefits across Haiti,” stated Bill Clinton.

For Muhammad Yunus “Haiti Forest is an example how social business represents a unique opportunity to drive economic growth in Haiti [...] Social Businesses like Haiti Forest that are aimed at an environmental or social need represent not only the solutions to these pressing issues, but the financially sustainable means for continued development in Haiti.”

Click here for the Rest of the Story…

We Support The Canopy Project, How about you?

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As part of its mission to protect natural lands and preserve the environment for all people, Earth Day Network developed The Canopy Project. Rather than focusing on large scale forestry, The Canopy Project plants trees that help communities – especially the world’s impoverished communities – sustain themselves and their local economies. Trees reverse the impacts of land degradation and provide food, energy and income, helping communities to achieve long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Trees also filter the air and help stave off the effects of climate change.

With the reality of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and more frequent and violent storms and floods, tree cover to prevent devastating soil erosion has never been more important. That’s why, earlier this the year, Earth Day Network made a commitment with the Global Poverty Project to plant 10 million trees over the next five years in impoverished areas of the world.

Earthday.org