Our Mission

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Heartfelt Thanks and Holiday Wishes from Team Noramise, November 2011

November 22, 2011 in Donate, Limbé Project, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

Young papaya trees at HHN center Limbé

In this season of celebration and gratitude, Team Noramise has much to be
thankful for. Two years and countless hours of conversation, work, and
commitment have combined to establish a community center in Limbé where
many positive initiatives have taken root. Clean water, productive gardens,
health and nutrition education, art workshops, collaboration with other
organizations, and neighborhood exchange have all taken place under our roof
and have provided a beacon of light and air in an otherwise mostly downtrodden
community. None of this would be possible were it not for the confidence in us
displayed by contributors in our Orcas Island community and all across the
country. We are extremely grateful for this and send our heartfelt thanks and
warmest holiday wishes to all.

Journal | September 2011

September 30, 2011 in Journal, Limbé Project, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

This was a month of connections, both new and renewed.  With Rosedanie in the U.S., teleconferencing has enabled her to stay current with the activities of the Haiti Committee.  There have been some shifting alliances, with Tambour Creole Artist’s Collective moving out from under our umbrella.  We wish them the very best as their group grows and changes.  We are happy to have had the benefit of their creativity at the HHN Center.

Meanwhile, a connection with one of Bio-char’s (www.carbon-roots.org) founders, Ryan Delaney has been renewed.  He will be at the HHN Limbe’ Center next month and will assess the suitability of adding a bio-char system to our growing resource recovery efforts in the garden area.

Dr. Richemond Jean Baptiste has been in touch with us regarding progress on our plan to begin a public health education initiative in the Limbé area.  Dr. Tiffany Keenan of Haiti Village Health, headquartered in Bas Limbé will be joining with us on this project.

We mentioned in an earlier post that local supporter Gwen Stamm was making and canning preserves to be sold in support of HHN at an Artisan’s Faire in December.  Rosedanie’s original vision for HHN was to build a food processing facility which would employ local people, preserve fruit that often goes to waste, provide nourishment to an under-nourished population, and help sustain programs in health, nutrition, and literacy at the center.  We have held onto this vision and continue to move closer to it in a variety of ways including establishing permaculture gardens, exploring various low tech ways of drying fruit, and looking to other organizations in Haiti for successful food processing models.  We are learning patience as we take one step at a time.

Board News:  It was with great reluctance and regret that on September 11th we accepted the resignation of board member Nathan Yoffa.  Nathan brought to us clear thinking, straight forward problem solving, a remarkable level of organization and efficiency, and a very big heart.  We thank him for a year of committed, active service and wish him the very best.  He is missed.

Journal | June 2011

June 30, 2011 in Events, Journal, Limbé Project, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

June was a month of mixed success for Noramise. Our report to the Orcas Island Community, June 2nd, drew a small group of loyal supporters and enabled some good exchanges. However, a printing mix-up yielded no flyers to advertise the event which, when coupled with other community activities, meant many of our friends did not join us. Also, the promise of a video presentation fell through leaving Rosedanie to attempt putting something together in the wee hours. Finally, there was a reluctance on the part of the board to ask the community for contributions, knowing that so many are struggling. Lessons learned, and we carry on.

The primary focus for the rest of the month was on organizing volunteers for the July 18th trip to Limbé. Three Northwest residents, Jen Nichol, Dave Parish, and Nicole Vulcan, will join with in-country volunteer, Olivia Jeanne, in conducting an intensive three-week English as a Second Language (ESL) workshop for the Noramise Haiti Committee and other members of our Limbe’ family. Our efforts at obtaining at least three laptop computers for the workshop, and beyond, are ongoing. Both the ability to speak English and the access to computers will help to end the isolation of so many Haitians.

Rosedanie has been traveling to Seattle and Portland helping organize fund-raising events in support of the volunteers’ trip and also to sell the art of Tambour Creole. One of the goals of these travels has been to connect with other Haitians living in the area and to engage them in our mission. Each step is a building block toward an ever widening circle of community support.

We were so happy to welcome a visit to Limbé by Bill and Dorie Mebane. Bill is the superintendent of Aquaculture Engineering at the Woods Hole Institute in Massachusetts and has been providing us with assistance in moving forward on the project we are supporting in conjunction with the Masabiel Farmers’ Association. This visit resulted in specifics as to equipment and supplies needed. The HHN Center will be the location for incubator ponds for the Tilapia fry. We’ll soon be posting on the site a report from Bill including the list of what we need to take the next steps on this project. Go to: www.tedxwoodshole.org for more information.

A second welcome visitor was Patrick Cummings of World Water Partners who was in Limbé to determine suitability of water purifications units he and his organization had committed to donating to two local clinics. Sadly, he concluded that there is neither adequate power nor sufficient water pressure to accommodate these high capacity units so has instead recommended our pursuing the wider use of ceramic filters.

We are so grateful to these visitors for their time and their commitment to the people of Haiti.

“The sound of extreme poverty is an overwhelming silence, for the world’s very poor are unable to speak for themselves. They are unaware that their situation is even the subject of ongoing discussion. Their lives are so different from ours that a behavioral scientist might be tempted to ask whether we are all members of the same species. Our diets, reproductive rates and methods of transportation are entirely diverse. For the absolute poor, education is an unfamiliar abstraction. Their thoughts circle around survival, not of the human species in the future, but of the individual in the next hour. Somehow they have become passive objects of fate, awaiting the next blow: a killer cyclone, a flood, drought, or the advance of this or that army. Those who do endure will flow into cities, filling the spaces between buildings, trying somehow to stay out of harm’s way. Watching, waiting, in silence.” Jim Cousteau – Calypso Log 1992

Journal | February / March / April 2011

April 30, 2011 in Financials, Journal, Limbé Project, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

These were quiet months for the Orcas team. Some of us took advantage of the time for personal travel while Rosedanie completed the Permaculture course in Fredriksted and began weaving her way back to this island. Enroute she connected with a number of people and organizations whose commitment to sustainability in Haiti mirrors ours.

Among those were Dori and Bill Mebane of Woods Hole, MA. Steve has been collaborating with Bill regarding the furthering of the Masabiel Farmers’ Cooperative aquaculture project. The Mebanes were enroute to Haiti where they met with members of the HHN Limbé Committee and toured the site of the ponds. Bill was able to provide some very helpful information and suggestions as to size and development of the ponds, which the cooperative will now put to use. In addition, the Mebanes carried with them a parcel of toys and games purchased with funds raised in Massachusetts by Rosedanie. She exchanges these with the ubiquitous plastic guns and weapons carried by children on the streets throughout Limbé. Another small step toward changing minds.

While in New York, Rosedanie met with Scott Cullen of the Grace Foundation to request funding for the aquaculture project. Mr. Cullen will present our proposal at the next board meeting of the foundation. We are keeping our fingers crossed! The importance of this project cannot be overstated in that it will not only provide a badly needed source of protein but will also create jobs and be a model for other places in the community.

Seattle-based members of Engineers Without Borders have donated to HHN a high capacity water purification unit. This is a very generous gesture on their part and a very exciting development for residents of Limbé. Currently it is proposed that the unit will be installed at a small hospital near the HHN Center. That is subject to negotiations in progress with the founder. In addition to the unit, Engineers Without Borders will pay for shipping and for supplies for the first year. Thanks to the generosity of Orcas Islanders, we have a small fund dedicated to water purification which will enable us to pay for ancillary costs.

Rosedanie has returned to Orcas, so the pace quickens! The first item on the calendar is our second annual report to the Orcas Island community on June 2nd at the Emmanuel Parish Hall in Eastsound. Rosedanie will report on her time in both Haiti and on St. Croix. We are hopeful that Lahini Pierre, an HHN supporter of Haitian birth and a writer who is soon to take up residence in Port au Prince, will join us for the evening. We’ll be raising funds for an ESL and COMPUTER SKILLS day camp to take place in Limbé in July for 3 weeks. Rosedanie has arranged for ESL teachers to travel with her to Haiti where they’ll conduct classes for children and young adults who are already studying English but who have little opportunity to speak it. There will be various fundraising events for this project throughout the Northwest. Please watch the calendar for an event near you!!

The journal entry for May will have more detail. But a final word for this one: We are both aware and concerned about recent revelations about Greg Mortenson, about “Pennies for Peace”, and about The Grameen Bank. These revelations are both disconcerting and cautionary. In each case you have a visionary who, it would appear, has paid insufficient attention to the great responsibility associated with accepting public funds. We wish to assure you that our vision is backed up with detailed bookkeeping which enables us to account for every penny received. To do less than this would be an insult to the mission.

Journal | January 2011

January 30, 2011 in Journal, Limbé Project, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

Although the Helping Hands Noramise organization was formalized in July 2010, it began to coalesce around the vision of Rosedanie 6 months earlier, in January 2010. As we move forward into 2011, this month has been devoted to reconfirming that vision and to planning activities for 2011.

Rosedanie is in the midst of taking a Permaculture course in Fredriksted on the island of St. Croix. The information and skills gained from this course will be applied to both the permaculture gardens currently underway in Limbé and to the further development of the aquaculture project undertaken by the Masabiel Farmers Association.

We are struggling with both a calendar for 2011 and a corresponding budget in that there are so many unknowns inherent in working in Haiti. For example, Rosedanie’s weeks in Limbé at the end of 2010 were consumed by organizing volunteers for outreach in cholera prevention education when, in fact, the plan had been for her to work to move forward on various HHN projects. We had to stretch our budget in order to pay for emergency shipments in support of that outreach and learned that our budgeting plan will have to be flexible.

Please stay with us as we move and grow in fostering the HHN mission to empower the Haitian people in developing and sustaining intentional local industries.

Journal | August 2010

August 30, 2010 in Events, Financials, Our Mission, Projects, What's New? by Noramise

This was a month devoted primarily to organizational work with the board of trustees.  We began long range planning, worked to solidify our base of volunteers, worked closely with our bookkeeper, Janna Gingras, to create systems for receiving/dispensing funds and meaningful financial reports, and generally focused on building a solid foundation for HHN.

A call for office equipment for the HHN Limbé Center resulted in the donation of a new multi-purpose printer by Orcas computer whiz, Tony Ghazel.  Thank you, Tony!

On August 23rd we opened a show of Haitian art, primarily from the Tambour Creole Collective with whom we work, at Millie’s Antiques and Collectibles in Eastsound, WA (Orcas Island).  Millie cleared out her space and very generously accommodated the show, adding a few fine Haitian paintings of her own.  A group of wonderfully supportive local “grandmothers” worked with Rosedanie to mount and hang the various pieces.  The show was well received by the community.  It ended August 29th with a celebration in the adjacent Cottage Company garden, highlighted by food, music, and a benefit auction including works donated by Orcas artists.