L'Union Fait La Force, Unity Makes Strength. Be Informed, Stay Involved.
Support the need in Haiti through art! Noramise has brought back a collection of Haitian Art by local artists of the Tambour Creole Artists’ Cooperative. Paintings are available for sale at this art auction fundraising event on Orcas Island, WA, Sunday, August 29th from 1-5pm, or contact Rosedanie if you’re interested in buying some art. All proceeds go directly to the artists in Haiti.
Painting by a 15 yr-old artist in Limbé, Haiti.
February/March 2010
Rosedanie and a group of 9 volunteers, which included permaculture farmers from 2 countries and a team of documentary filmmakers installed several gardens in Limbe’ and Camp Cop, Haiti. The group also participated in the cleanup of the town marketplace, which was encumbered with trash, and donated funds to the First Baptist Church to purchase a water pump for a new sanitary bathroom. They also visited with the Camp Cop Farmers’ Association and started preliminary talks regarding help from HHN for an aquaculture project. On returning, the Orcas Island members of the team gave a presentation on the trip to the Emmanuel Episcopal Church which has been very supportive of the project.
March/May 2010
The team continued its community outreach and fund-raising at various places in the U.S., including a presentation on April 14th to the Orcas Island community. Mimi Anderson and Steve Diepenbrock of Morningstar Farm on Orcas, together with Rosedanie, gave a presentation on the project on Whidbey Island which was hosted by the Sister Island Project whose work is focused on Santo Domingo. Sister Island has generously hosted the team on arrival in Santo Domingo enroute to Limbe’. Benefits for HHN were hosted in Bellingham by Julie Connell and in Seattle by Yoon’s Yoga Bliss. Although the gatherings were small, those attending seemed truly committed to helping the work in Haiti move forward.
May 2010
Team Noramise returns to Limbe’ to survey gardens and continue work on projects begun. A rally on trash removal was held in the marketplace with town residents voicing their opinions and support for the project. Both the Chief of Police and the town Public Defender offered their support. Large drums will be placed to serve as trash receptacles, and fines will be levied for littering. One step forward. The team visited a nearby aquaculture project in order to see what models were locally available for the Camp Cop Farmers’ Association. A search was begun for a permanent home as headquarters for HHN in Limbe’.
June/July 2010
Team Noramise, comprised of six Orcas Island High School students and two former graduates, together with Rosedanie and Steve Diepenbrock, began their trip to Haiti via Brooklyn, NY where Susan Daily of Chestnut Restaurant hosted a benefit. Ms. Daily donated 50 backpacks for the children of Limbe’, and her children and their classmates filled them with school supplies. These were entrusted to the Orcas students who would deliver them. On arrival in Limbe’ the team hosted the first 2-day art and sports camp for the youth of the town. A second visit was made to Bethesda School where, with the help of Mrs. Batat’s sons and several community members aged 8 to 30, they cleaned up the back yard and built beds for a vegetable garden which the school will maintain. Building and stocking a chicken coop is scheduled for the next Team Noramise trip. Team Noramise also worked with a Haitian school group to clean the grounds of the local museum.
Helping Hands Noramise now has a local Haitian committee which will oversee projects when the U.S. team is not present. Mrs. Grimard will act as Directrice, and Mr. Desronvil as Secretary of this committee. A house was found to use as a headquarters, and through the generous support of an Orcas Islander, it was leased for one year. This will be the place where the local committee will meet with project leaders. It will also house the U.S. team and provide a home for a burgeoning local artists’ cooperative, Tambour Arts. The house is three doors from the childhood home of Rosedanie.
The trash pile in the marketplace has been removed due to the influence of the Minister of Agriculture. On the final day of the trip Rosedanie, Mrs. Grimard, and Mr. Desronvil met with Mayor Celicourt Monpremier to discuss continued cleanup of the town. Team Noramise has offered to help by providing community outreach and education on the subject. We trust this is the beginning of a long and beneficial partnership with the local government.
On return to Orcas Island, Team Noramise made a presentation to the community at Emmanual Parish Hall on July 27th. The team members spoke about their experiences in Haiti and what they had gained from the trip. They presented a 30 minute slide show which received a standing ovation. A “Golden Shoestrings” auction capped the evening and helped to defray some expenses of the trip and to support the ongoing projects. It was concluded that the exchange between the youth of Orcas Island and the youth of Limbe’ was priceless.
Please stay tuned for more details on specific projects and how you, too, can be involved.
Team Noramise arrives at house in Limbé, Haiti, with lots of gear & supplies.
The first Orcas-Limbé student exchange is happening! Volunteers are working on land in Limbé which has been dedicated for the construction of a tuition-free vocational high school to be built by Team Noramise and a local family.
See recent PHOTOS taken by the group in Haiti on the Noramise Facebook page.
Thank you to all the people who donated time and money to support this trip!
The summer solstice fundraising benefit event for the school project in Haiti, held at Chestnut restaurant in Brooklyn, NYC, was an amazing send-off party for this group of student volunteers. Thanks to the generous owners and chef of Chestnut who donated the delicious food and beautiful space!
Steve doing what he loves best, Limbé, Haiti.
Rosedanie Cadet is a women of Haitian decent who spent her early years in her home country. She now lives and works on Orcas Island. She reconnected with her family in Haiti just before the January 12th earthquake. While there she was both overwhelmed by the needs of the people and inspired to share with them the benefits of her education and life experience. She returned to Orcas the day before the quake with plans to help them increase food production, to help build a tuition-free school, and to create a flexible organization which would enlist local people in improving their lives. She has named that organization Noramise after her grandmother.
The execution of those plans has now become a driving force for her and for the many people in our community and elsewhere. Her family connections in Limbé have given her the opportunity for grassroots help. Her uncle, cousins, and many other members of the extended family are energized and are carrying on the wheels she and the team began. They need our help.
There are four projects currently underway:
1. Development of a municipal solid waste management system.
2. Development of an aquaculture farm for growing tilapia to help remedy the protein-deficient diet.
3. Development of farm and garden sites (some commercial) with the emphasis on Permaculture.
4. The first Orcas-Limbé student exchange to take place 20-30 of June at a summer camp held on the grounds of land in Limbé which has been dedicated for the construction of a tuition-free school.
Each of these projects comes with needs for funding and for expertise. Following is a brief list:
Tobias delivering metal grinder to Youth leader and iron worker Daniel.
We so often hear about people and countries in need, but we don’t know where or how to begin to help. Noramise gives us the opportunity to participate in projects which will change lives and with which we can have a very direct connection. Please join us in this exciting effort. We will keep you posted every step of the way.
Thank you.
The Noramise Team
This video documents the first visit of the Noramise project to Haiti. The purpose is to document our work and share it with our community who help sponsor Noramise.
Yoon’s Yoga Bliss in Shoreline, Washington will be offering a 2-hour guided Vinyasa Flow Yoga Class to benefit Noramise on Saturday, June 5th.
Please see our Events page for details and call now to sign up!
Limbé, Haiti — The town of Limbé sits about 22 kilometers away from Haiti’s northern shore. Though it was far from the January earthquake that devastated the southern regions, the town has experienced a major shake-up in the wake of the quake. Towns like Limbé, with a population of roughly 50,000 people, have seen their populations swell by as much as 30 percent, as the sons and daughters who went to find work in Port-au-Prince now return home. In disaster’s wake, a tenuous balance has been tipped for towns with an already shaky infrastructure. Lack of adequate sanitation, clean water, and food were already issues in Limbé before the quake, and the problems are only compounded now.
But according to Rosedanie Cadet, leader of Orcas Island-based relief organization Helping Hands Noramise, a new Haiti can be born out of the tragedy. Cadet envisions a Haiti where everyone has access to education, proper sanitation, and proper nutrition, and is working to foster that through Helping Hands Noramise.
In February and March 2010, volunteers from Helping Hands Noramise worked with individuals and groups in Limbé, planting gardens, fostering artisan partnerships, and mobilizing townspeople to remove a giant trash pile from their marketplace.
In May 2010, the group will return again to continue nurturing the seeds that were planted in March. Plans are in place to begin building a school in Limbé, and in June, a group of teen volunteers from Orcas Island will go to Haiti to help build it.
Dozens of businesses from Orcas Island have organized fundraisers this month, to continue the work of Helping Hands Noramise:
Monday, April 26th
Madrona Bar and Grill
310 Main St, Eastsound
All proceeds from appetizers.
Tuesday, April 27th
The Kitchen
249 Prune Alley, Eastsound
A percentage of the day’s proceeds.
Tuesday, April 26th – Friday, April 30th
Trés Fabu
238 North Beach Rd, Eastsound
A percentage of week’s proceeds.
Wednesday, April 28th
Straight Shots Espresso
1 Main Street, Eastsound
A percentage of the day’s proceeds.
Inn at Shipbay
326 Olga Rd, Eastsound
open at 5:30 pm
$10 from each diningroom entrée.
Thursday, April 29th
Deer Harbor Inn and Restaurant
78 Inn Lane, Deer Harbor
$25 benefit dinner
5-8 pm
The meal will include a choice of vegetarian lasagna or grilled marinated free range chicken, split pea soup, garden salad, homemade bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Friday, April 30th
Westsound Café at Kingfish Inn
4362 Crow Valley Rd. Westsound
5-8 pm
All proceeds from appetizers and desserts.
For information or interviews, please contact Rosedanie Cadet at rosedanie@noramise.org, or call (360) 420-1331. Thank you for your interest and support of Helping Hands Noramise! www.noramise.org
Tags: Haiti, helping hands, Journal, Limbé, Noramise, Orcas Island, Press
Steve and Taylor Diepenbrock from Morningstar Farm on Orcas Island traveled to Haiti with Rosedanie.
Well, here is the news from Haiti.
After 10 days the project is progressing, at times incredibly fast and others at an infirm snail’s pace. We are being hosted by the First Baptist Church of Limbé where my grandfather was a deacon and both my mother and aunt sang in the choir. Our lodging is in the presbytery next to the church. As with most of the country, Limbé has haphazard electrical service. Fortunately we were able to bring a small generator so have our own source of electricity.
The week we arrived was a week of remembrance for the victims of the earthquake. President Preval had ordered all schools and businesses closed on the 12th. We arrived in Limbé midday on the 13th as church services were ending. Being that the church is in front of the market and it was a Saturday, we made quite a sight arriving in the back of a pickup loaded with supplies and a mountain bike. Needless to say it was not a stealth entry into town.
Taylor (Diepenbrock) and I attended Sunday services while Steve (Diepenbrock) served as security for our belongings. We were introduced to the congregation, and I was asked to make a small speech. Poor Taylor. I could feel his discomfort as we stood in front of an all black congregation. After church, Pasteur Milca invited us to his house for lunch. Thereafter, our meals were prepared by Mrs. Milca and brought to us by their sons, Lumil and Nevski. A spectacle in itself. The boys delivered our meals and watched as we ate. After a few days I was feeling like an animal at the zoo during meal times.
Each day of our stay we have had visitors asking for help with their various projects. Some of their stories are heartbreaking, and I started feeling that maybe our project was a luxury given the immediate needs for food, clothing, and shelter of most of the people here. However, as the week progressed and we visited the proposed site for the plant and various farming projects, it became evident that this particular project of providing long term programs for the people will eventually feed their immediate needs by providing jobs and a sense of ownership.
Thursday, the 18th, was my 49th birthday, the first I’ve spent in my homeland in 36 years. Having not been able to sleep well for some days, I awoke in a foul mood which only increased when breakfast arrived, and there was no coffee. After breakfast we accompanied my cousin Delano Cadet, a Pasteur at another Baptist church, to view the site of what he hopes will become a thriving fish farm. The majority of Haitians eat one meal a day and usually have no meat or protein. It is his dream to provide low cost protein to the people of the region. To reach the site we drove 30 minutes and hiked along the mountainside for another 30 minutes. The view of the rushing river below and the terraced hills were a balm to my sore mood, and I soon found myself fully enjoying the day. Upon returning to town we met with an engineer who gave us a rough idea as to how much it would cost for materials needed to build the plant – A LOT!
The icing on the non-existent birthday cake was a present of mango-colored “TEAM NORAMISE” t-shirts presented to me by Steve and Taylor. I had mentioned to Mimi (Anderson-Diepenbrock) that that was my vision for a project shirt, so she had a few made and sent to me with the boys. The thoughtfulness of the gesture brought tears of joy to my eyes and reaffirmed the timeliness of this project, for this last year of the first half century of my life is also a rebirthing of my life in my homeland.
Speaking of my homeland, it’s been very interesting being the female leader of our team. In a country where the women do most of the work yet are relegated to 2nd class status, I must seem like quite an anomaly to the general populace. However, my family having been one of the founding families of Limbé has made it possible to open doors that might otherwise have remained shut to a ”mere” woman.
Steve and Taylor have returned to Orcas, and I find myself missing them while still looking forward to the arrival of the next team. We are now working to help local farmers and, at the same time, looking for land to buy in order to build a NORAMISE headquarters here in Limbé. Please stay tuned.
— Rosedanie
Tags: Haiti, helping hands, Journal, Limbé, Noramise, Rosedanie
The initial phase of the Limbé Project will focus on mobilizing the people of Limbé and volunteers to clear the land for construction and getting farmlands ready for replanting.
Rosedanie arrived in Limbé on 2/10/2010, with the first group of volunteers and supplies to follow shortly after.
Anyone wishing to volunteer, email Ethan at: volunteer@noramise.org, with Limbé as the subject. Please give a brief history of your experience working with another culture as well as a list of your skills and talents. We are asking a two week minimum commitment. Travel cost should range between $500-$1000 US, dependent on your departure city.
Follow the upcoming Noramise journal entries here, chronicling the Limbé Project and the work Helping Hands Noramise is doing in Haiti.
Tags: Haiti, helping hands, Journal, Limbé, Noramise, Rosedanie
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