PARTNER FOR PEOPLE AND PLACE works with people at the grassroots to solve the problems of poverty.
We believe sustainable solutions come from joining the entrepreneurship of local people with the ecology of the place where they live. To support that partnership we provide technical resources and facilitate community action. We work from the ground up.
Our current project is JATROPHA PEPINYÈ. Jatropha Pepinyè is a nonprofit Haitian business that grows and sells transplant seedlings of Jatropha curcas for renewable energy, rural economic development, and the re-vegetation of devastated landscapes. The nursery is located in Terrier Rouge in northeastern Haiti on the newly improved Route Nationale.
SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS = PEOPLE + PLACE
Festival is a success
2008-07-11
On Saturday June 28, the Fet Gwo Medsiyen (Jatropha Festival) was held in Terrier Rouge, Haiti. The town was festooned with banners about biodiesel and growing Jatropha as more than 25,000 people flooded the streets for the town's patron saint festival. With live music, food, games, and exhibits, we succeeded in making everyone aware of a new potential for a plant that is well-known in this area -Gwo Medsiyen. Visitors showed up from Port au Prince and other parts of Haiti as well as the locals to learn more about biodiesel and farming Jatropha. People felt the oil, smelled it, and checked out the soap that can be made from it. They asked lots of questions too and saw firsthand how well a diesel engine runs on "plant fuel" - dispelling any doubt that biodiesel works. There was also no doubt that the price of petroleum diesel has gone through the roof and something has to be done. Take a look at the slide show and the movie on the website to get a sense of our progress at Jatrofa Pepinye and to gauge the excitement of the festival. We've got fields growing and machines running. We're grateful for our sponsor, DIGICEL, which made the festival financially possible, and for the Town of Terrier Rouge, which set us up in a prominent location in the town square and for the Cooperative des Petits Planteurs du Nord Est, whose membership of farmers asked us to do more than just talk. "Show us", they asked. This could well become an annual event.
Rob
JATROPHA FESTIVAL
2008-06-06
On Saturday June 28, 2008 FET GWO MEDSIYEN (Jatropha Festival) will be held in Terrier Rouge, Haiti. It is the first ever in Haiti and is sponsored by Jatropha Pepinye, DIGICEL, the Town of Terrier Rouge, and the Cooperative des Petits Planteurs du Nor Est. It will be a celebration with food, music, and demonstrations about growing Jatropha, expelling its oil, making marketable products from the oil and producing and using BIODIESEL. Festival-goers will ride in a biodiesel-powered taptap from the town square to our nursery (pepinye) to see Jatropha growing in the fields. There will be agronomists on hand to answer questiong. Biodiesel engineeers will be on hand to demonstrate equipment and the production of oil. Soap-makers will demonstrate making Jatropha soap. And there will be lots of fun. Our festival coincides with Terrier Rouge's annual fet patronas (patron saint festival), so there will be lots of people around to learn about Jatropha and the local businesses that can be developed. The Jatropha Festival has come about in response to Terrier Rouge's farmers saying, "Don't just talk to me, show me". Farmers are by nature practical people and seeing is believing. The Belles Etoiles, a twubado band, will be playing all day and food will be cooking on Jatropha plant oil stoves. Hope to see you there,
Rob
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