By Melody Regalado - Florida Catholic correspondent
Photographer: COURTESY| ST. THOMAS UNIVERSITY Aleus Cadet, president of the COCANO Fair- Trade Coffee Cooperative, displays some Haitian coffee beans.
MIAMI � Long before the devastating earthquake hit, seeds of hope for the future were being planted across the poorest region in Haiti. Scattered as they are, those seeds might point the way to recovery in the present.
Three years ago, Catholic Relief Services, Amor en Acci�n and St. Thomas University established a partnership called the Global Solidarity Committee. Their goal: to assist the people of Port-de-Paix, the sister diocese of the Archdiocese of Miami, through three long-term sustainable projects: a fair-trade coffee cooperative, a women�s artisan initiative and a solar energy project.
�Rather than sending money to Haiti periodically, we wanted to look at more long-term and self-sufficient projects that would begin making an impact on our sister-diocese for the future,� said Anthony Vinciguerra, coordinator of the Center for Justice and Peace at St. Thomas University.
They chose projects that would empower the people, help them care for their families and stimulate Port-de-Paix�s economy.
�These projects are more important than ever right now,� said Vinciguerra. �The northwest has been flooded with tens of thousands of refugees from Port-au-Prince, and as the northwest is so remote there has been little to no international aid to the region.
�Thus we're redoubling our efforts with the university and Amor en Acci�n,� he continued, �to both get some immediate relief to the region, and even more so to focus on these projects � as they will provide jobs and the infrastructure to absorb the newly arrived into the northwest�s already very limited economy.�
�This area is particularly important to Miami because many people from our community are from the northwest, which is the launching point for many who come to Miami by boat,� said Teresa Gonzalez, executive director of Amor en Acci�n, a lay missionary group whose members have spent more than 30 years building relationships and giving assistance to people in the Diocese of Port-de-Paix.
Port-de-Paix is an area highly affected by deforestation, and there are no good roads connecting the north to the south. It takes hours to travel across the island, and there is little electricity.
Gonzalez says working in northwest Haiti is a big challenge because �the fruits won�t be seen easily. The real challenge is in understanding and committing to the people for whom this is a daily reality. The people of Haiti have the wisdom. By understanding them little by little, we learn how they work and how we can fit into that.�
Vinciguerra said the three projects � coffee growing, artisan work, and solar energy � were selected because they met three important criteria:
� The projects come from the community and are owned and run by them to improve their own lives (building a civic society);
� The projects help them figure out how to address long-term issues and help them make their own money (long-term sustainability);
� The projects benefit all those involved and help them learn from each other (a partnership of mutuality).
Members and volunteers with the Global Solidarity Committee began taking trips to the island in late 2006 and they go back three times a year. They took their time to understand the Haitians� situation, experience the difficulties of life there and see what they could do to collaborate.
�We are as much transformed by this experience as what we want to help transform,� said Gonzalez.
The committee�s work has been documented in �Blooming Hope: Harvesting Smiles in Port-de-Paix,� a film that depicts both the struggle and beauty of Haiti and offers a glimpse into the lives of the people affected by each of the projects.
The film was produced by Marcela Moyano-Rosero, a communications professor at St. Thomas, her husband Fernando Rosero and five students from the university. Moyano-Rosero said she was inspired to do something after her first visit to Haiti in May 2008.
�I wanted to put my video production skills in place to do something to inspire people overseas and around the world to raise their awareness of this community,� she said.
The documentary premiered Nov. 14 at the Haitian Heritage Museum in Miami, raising $800 for the committee�s efforts. The women artisans� crafts were sold, and the fair-trade coffee sold out. The film also was shown Jan. 17 in the Gallery of Art at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School in Miami. A big premier in Miami is also being planned for April.
Three of the students who co-produced the film � Shantell Haynes, Tiffany Norman and Alejandra Rosero � traveled to Haiti to do the filming.
�I went on the trip feeling like I was going to be helping all these people,� said Norman, who does marketing and promotions for the documentary. �But when I got there, I felt like I was the one getting the education.�
Student involvement has also deepened through the Social Entrepreneurship class offered at the university. It is a nine-week undergraduate and graduate business course designed to provide students with a sense of social responsibility. As part of their coursework, the students break into groups focusing on the coffee, artisan, solar energy or documentary projects and develop plans to enhance them.
The first class was held in the spring of 2009. Ten students were chosen to go to Haiti and given specific tasks to carry out. Some of the students remain involved even though the class has ended.
Moyano-Rosero said she also has begun figuring out the logistics of screening the film for the people in Haiti.
�This will be the first time many of them see themselves,� she said. �Most of them don�t even have mirrors.�
