"What is help?" I asked my Aquinas colleagues as I surveyed the Port-au-Prince landscape during the 1998 Haiti service-learning trip.

Mission teams in neon t-shirts piled into vans. Bundles of imported used clothing balanced on the heads of swaying street vendors. Sweating men with muscles of iron strained beneath the weight of hand-drawn carts piled high with bags of surplus U.S. rice.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti was bustling with people going everywhere, yet going nowhere: 75-85% unemployment; 55% illiteracy; average age expectancy 49 years. Haiti is a case study in failed aid, both governmental and that of good intentions.

I returned to live in Port-au-Prince in 2001 to seek the answer to my question from the perspective of the poor. Paul Prevost, mayor of the rural, mountainous community of Mizak, introduced me to an artisan cooperative. It was not a sustainable business model, but the women were receiving a paycheck and a message of self-worth. Their children were in school. Their husbands and the community gave them respect. They didn’t have to travel long distances on risky and costly public transportation to market product in dangerous urban areas. They were happy.

Leaving the co-op, a sign posted along the road announced a faith-based feeding program. Paul said, “Every time I see that sign, I feel shame that my community lines up for a handout of the same scoop of rice & beans every day. The missionaries want us to live but they don’t want us to grow.”

Fast forward to March 2007 and the creation of ‘HAPI’ – Haitian Artisans for Peace International, which I co-founded with Paul with a mission for ‘securing health, education, dignity and hope through economic opportunities. U.S. team members partnered with us in product development, marketing and business leadership development. The artisans began with the production of hand-embroidered, frameable gift cards, marketed primarily to churches and nonprofits.

The gift cards were a launching point. HAPI has continued to develop their staff and products towards a goal of positioning themselves as a sustainable business in the retail gift market. Last August, HAPI participated in training from ‘Aid-to-Artisans,’ an organization that works with international artisans to understand the North American gift market, including product trends, distribution channels, costing and pricing models.

Aid-to-Artisans encouraged HAPI prototypes created from recycled clothing and used cement sacks. The shift to products made from recycled materials reflects HAPI’s evolvement beyond social enterprise to holistic community development that encompasses ‘people, planet, and profit’ within an environment of spiritual nurture.

“We help other people in our neighborhood who don’t work. We provide credit without interest. When my neighbors see me staying home, they ask me why I’m not going to ‘look for life’ for them. This means that it’s not only me who’s working in HAPI in this area: it’s all of our neighbors and families who participate in HAPI,” states Nicole Phryton, HAPI artisan.

Nicole used payroll deduction from her HAPI artisan products to purchase three solar ovens from a seminar sponsored by HAPI. She now has a steady income from the ovens and clean water. All three children are in school. Nicole enrolled herself in a professional center to learn new skills to expand her business opportunities.

Nicole summed it up best: "It's not only the money I like about HAPI. When I go to HAPI, if I have a problem it is resolved because everybody is very encouraging. There is peace in HAPI."

Editor's Note: Valerie Mossman-Celestin '01 has been involved with Haiti for more than a decade. She prepared this article about her group, Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI), before the devastating earthquake struck on January 12. As an epilogue to this piece, she sent Aquinas a few words about the aftermath of the devastation.

Epilogue

January 12, 2010 - 35 seconds altered the face of Haiti more significantly than 200 years of oppression, occupation, resistance, and coups.

Port-au-Prince was the heart of Haiti, pumping out food, clothing, construction materials, most of the limited national income and higher education. Where are Port-au-Prince refugees to look for life? Back to the rural communities that birthed them but which currently have no resources to sustain them.

In Mizak alone, nearly 600 homes are inhabitable. People are sleeping outside on plastic tarps. Food prices are too high for the majority living on less than $1 day.

HAPI is engaging in ‘first response’ disaster relief while recognizing an opportunity to rebuild a different future that vitalizes the rural communities and provides opportunity for higher education, skilled trades and jobs that hold families together in the rural community. I invite you to be a part of the present and future: www.haitianartisans.com.