We are a nonprofit, humanitarian development and disaster relief organization working in Haiti with men, women, and children of the farming and fishing communities.
To reduce Haiti’s poverty and hunger while increasing food security, we work closely with local farming and fishing communities to jointly design and execute integrated economic development programs.
The aim is to reinforce and expand their capacities to produce more and better quality food, increase their income, and expand their markets while improving access to basic necessities and promoting women’s equity.
An integrated approach combines economic growth with environmental remediation and regeneration, the strengthening of the social fabric, and the adoption of technology to increase effectiveness.
We also respond to natural disasters by helping communities to recover.
Our purpose is to partner with, support, and invest in Haiti’s smallholder farming and artisanal fishing communities because they are the key to ending the country’s persistent poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.
Currently, food insecurity is on the rise. According to USAID, 4.5 million Haitians suffer from hunger or extreme hunger – that is nearly half of the total population. Providing food emergency distributions is a perennial palliative, but not a long-term sustainable solution.
A sustainable solution is to help farmers, fishermen, and women who work in the food supply chain by providing them with the support they need to do what they do best – produce healthy food, but in bigger quantities.
Imagine, if we could help 60% of Haitians who are food producers to grow or catch significantly more food to feed at least their communities, and in the process lift themselves and those around them out of poverty, then Haiti would cease to be the poorest country in this hemisphere.
Join the movement to eradicate hunger and poverty in Haiti
Due to the disintegrating economy resulting from gang violence, we have established the Emergency School Lunch Program that provides children with their only wholesome meal of the day. We serve 300 meals per day or 48,600 meals per school year. One meal costs 85 cents.
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EcoWorks began operating in Haiti in 2009, taking root in the Lake Azueï region. Located directly east of the capital, at the border with the Dominican Republic. This region comprises the plain of Cul-de-Sac, the country’s largest lake, Azueï, and Haiti’s highest mountain range of La Selle, whose main peak is over 8,000 feet.
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Haiti is experiencing an unprecedented period of violence and disarray.
The latest developments include a constitutional crisis: a non-functional senate, an unelected government that many consider illegitimate, a lack of governance, the assassination of a sitting president, and gangs that have taken over the capital, the supply chains, and all roads leading out of the city. They use kidnapping for ransom, rape, and murder, and attack other gangs for territorial control; hundreds have died.
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Based on farmers’ input, we launched the Talia Farms Program, an integrated development initiative – based on EWI-farmers partnerships – for the Lake Azueï region. The purpose is to boost the local economy and reinforce it through environmental, social, and disaster relief programs to make it inclusive, integrated, and sustainable.
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The aim is to effectively address the deeply entrenched rural poverty by transferring knowledge, know-how, and resources to smallholder farming families who can drive the change towards regional economic growth.
Upon bringing up the cooperative as a possible solution to Marre-Roseau farmers’ expressed needs and aspirations, they stated that they had never heard of a cooperative. Just eighteen months later, they owned one.
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THE EARTHQUAKE IN 2021
On August14th, 2021, Haiti was struck by a powerful 7.2 earthquake, devastating the southwestern peninsula. The latest information indicates: that 2,200 were dead, 12,000 were injured, and more than 300 were missing; close to 130,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, and an estimated 700,000 people are homeless.
Ecoworks International helps rural farmers build sustainable businesses. Learn more and Donate Today!
Michèle Pierre-Louis, former Prime Minister of Haiti (2008-2009); and the force behind transforming a huge swath of land into a magnificent public park, next to one of Haiti’s worst urban shantytowns, Martissant. Part of her intent was to also help revitalize this area. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her exceptional work to improve lives in Haiti.
EWI organized a guided visit for the Prime Minister to visit the region and some of our initiatives. She was impressed with the work done and expressed her concern about the inadequate local road system hampering farmers’ ability to deliver crops to markets. This is one of the reasons EWI is initiating a flood mitigation project to better protect local life, livelihoods and the main road leading to Marre-Roseau.
"Nou te travay ak EWI pou twa dènye ane yo. Yo te ede nou etabli koperativ agrikòl, CAMA, nou posede epi aprann kijan pou jere. Ansanm nou retabli wout nou ki te domaje anpil. Nou bezwen wout sa pou nou rive nan mache a pou nou vann rekòt nou an. Nou te konstwi kèk sistèm kolekte dlo lapli, epi nou espere bati yon sistèm pou bese inondasyon ki detwi wout nou chak sezon lapli. Nou bezwen tou yon klinik sante".
“ We have been working with EWI for the last three years. They helped us establish our agricultural cooperative, CAMA, we own and learn how to manage. Together we restored our seriously damaged road. We need that road to get to the market to sell our harvest. We built some rainwater collecting systems, and we hope to build a system to mitigate floods that destroy our road each rainy season. We also need a health clinic”
