BIOCHAR HAITI
As you know, just two days after the earthquake struck, Nathaniel Mulcahey of WorldStove was on the ground and hard at work making and distributing stoves in Haiti. Dave Sleuwaegen’s Meldynique was already there, they had projects in Haiti and Dominican Republic well underway when the quake struck, and their team has been in meetings with President Clinton and the Minister of the Interior. Dave is auctioning off his classic 1920 Renault to buy seeds and cattle for Haiti with help from me and Vickens Moscova. We’re thinking about an EBay Motors auction, if anyone has a better idea let me know! Vickens has organized a fundraising dinner cruise out of New York later this month—is it the 27th, Vickens?–that will benefit Dave ‘s Biofuel and Food project for Haiti.
Although this is a new subgroup we already have 38 members, including the remarkable Harold Florentino Latortue, former Haitian Minister of Tourism in the caretaker government of 2005. Harold had already been working on projects for composting toilets when the earthquake hit. He has been tireless and beyond generous is his efforts to organize and give aid. Another member to mention is Alister Macintyre, whose birthday it is today. Alister is also a manager at the key Haiti group on LinkedIn, Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief, and he has taken up this volunteer work as if it were a full-time job. There is no-one out there who has done more to compile sources of information, help to find and connect people, and support members’ relief efforts with timely advice and information. We are all in his debt.
Today a remarkable thing happened in our Biochar Haiti subgroup. Nathaniel has been down in Haiti with member Vijay Jahangir, Director at International Lifeline Fund http://www.lifelinefund.org/ trying every way possible to get the large donation of stoves (in Minnesota) and wood pellets (on the panhandle in Florida) down to Haiti where they are waiting for them. Member Hoi Trinh of ILF has been working the phones in DC to get this moving, but like everything else on the way to Haiti, the stoves were stuck. Finally, today, Vickens Moscova hooked us up with a contact at International Relief and Development http://www.ird-dc.org/ who offered to ship everything to Haiti for us. By the time you read this the stoves may be on their way.
Please feel free to join these or any other subgroups you like. Find them in the subgroups tab and reuest an invitation. I will be happy to welcome you!
All the Best,
Victoria
Victoria Kamsler, D.Phil
Chief Ethics Officer and Research Director
Greenfiniti
http://www.greenfiniti.com
One Response
Benny McCall
09|Feb|2010 1Millions have lost everything in the quake – homes, food, jobs! For the next 12 months, the World Food Programme says 2 million people will need critical food assistance! If you want to help and learn more about the crisis response, go to: http://wfp.org/crisis/haiti> or you can text FRIENDS to 90999 to make a $5 donation.
Leave a reply