I recently worked with a deaf community in Haiti that was relocated to a remote town called LeVeque after the 2010 earthquakes. Our goal was simple: to study the people and their environment in order to design solutions that were effective and sustainable.
In LeVeque there is no access to safe drinking water, electricity, or jobs. Many go without water and food for days. Organizations had come in the past, but they had never studied the complexities of the deaf community. They gave them chickens and goats only for them to be stolen because the deaf could not hear people break in at night. They tried to give them dogs but people poisoned them because they had to let them roam the land freely in order to find food. If someone was lucky enough to still have a job in Port Au Prince, they have to stay at the displacement camps during the week because they cannot afford the cost of transportation home, which is often also unsafe.
The video above describes our project, ‘Baking for Allies,’ the struggles that the community faces daily and how they lost three deaf women when a bridge collapsed because people were so desperate that they stole the nuts and bolts of the bridge. These women were forced to continue on foot. After knocking on doors for shelter, they were brutally murdered and left in a ditch by a gang of men because their killers thought they were cursed because of their deafness. One was the mother of six children. The other was pregnant with her first child.
We hope that you will consider donating money to help this community survive and THRIVE.
Your donations will go towards our project Baking for Allies. Baking for Allies aims to create sustainable employment opportunities, empower deaf entrepreneurs, reduce their vulnerability to poverty, and reduce discrimination of the deaf in Haiti. The bakery will begin by employing four deaf workers and one hearing worker who is trained in deaf culture and sign language. In addition to being training in baking skills, the hearing worker will be responsible for working with the implementing organization (Association Des Sordes LeVeque Haiti) to help enhance community relations between the deaf and hearing and create allies for the community.
For more detailed information about the project, visit http://www.35113.org/blog/project-plan-baking-for-allies.
Thank you for your support and please, pass this project on.
Elise Roy (35113.org) and Josenel Exalus (Vice President of Haiti's National Association for the Deaf and President for LeVeque Haiti’s Association for the Deaf).
