A crowd gathers at Magazen Enèji Pwòp stand at the market for product demonstrations, raffles, testimonials and music.
“Atansyon! Atansyon!” megaphone-equipped town criers hollered throughout neighboring towns. Clean energy was coming to Les Anglais, they announced.
The Clean Energy Store (Magazen Enèji Pwòp) of Les Anglais held its grand opening this week with a full day of events and community outreach in this small town near the tip of Haiti’s southern peninsula.
After a morning of local DJ’s, product demonstrations, raffles, and special guests at the marketplace, Sinema Anba Zetwal, the acclaimed “Cinema Under the Stars” troupe from Port-au-Prince, lit up a giant screen in the town square for a full evening program that highlighted the environment, Haitian culture, and the benefits of solar electricity products and efficient cook stoves.
A woman reads a flier about the efficient Eco-Recho featured at the Grand Opening
In this town which has no electricity grid and almost exclusively inefficient stoves (when people have stoves at all,) people carried wooden chairs into the square, set up seats on rooftops, and lined the fences to watch. The program featured short films, cartoons, a vox pop short film of Les Anglaisians’ thoughts on clean energy, live testimonials from fellow-townspeople who had tested the products, as well as explanations from manufacturers and a guest speaker from Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution. The evening concluded with the full length environmental docu-film “Home” by Yann Arthus-Betrand in Haitian Creole.
Universally, the people of Les Anglais were impressed by the giant screen and professionalism of the event. “Les Anglais has never seen an installation this noble” one of the attendees commented. Another threw her hands in the air stretched far apart to convey how ‘ampil ampil extraordinaire‘ the night had been.
Les Anglaisians watch Sinema Anba Zetwal \
The following morning, a small crowd massed outside of the store before its doors opened at 9 am. Some had come to claim the stoves and solar products they had won in the raffle, and others came to look at the goods. The first paying client that day was a woman from the 9 am crowd who wanted to get a ‘miracle stove’ before her day of cooking at the market. She had heard that she could save 10 gourdes (approx US$0.25) in charcoal costs each day with the efficient stove, and she was anxious to start her savings when she fueled her business that day.
A customer holds up her new efficient cook stove.
Very special thanks and congratulations to COREA, CRAN, AVODCA, D+E Enterprises, The Green Family Foundation, Fast Forward Haiti, Sinema Anba Zetwal, and to all of the citizens of Les Anglais for making this opening a success!
This post comes from Bill Nichols who has been volunteering with EarthSpark in Les Anglais - Thank you Bill for your time, intellect, and flexibility! Bill is a marketing strategy consultant who occasionally provides his services to NGOs. Prior to assisting us at EarthSpark, Bill spent three months in Ethiopia assisting the German-based Solar Energy Foundation. He can be reached at williamsnichols49 <at> gmail.com.
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I am in the midst of spending nearly three weeks with ESI in Les Anglais. I am
volunteering my business expertise in sales and marketing to assist ESI and their Haitian
partner, COREA, in the launch and operation of their new retail store. So far I sense
that I am learning at least as much from our Haitian hosts as I am sharing with them.
Lessons so far:
1 . To drive across Les Anglais’ fast flowing river at night one must hire a river
guide to wade across in front of your vehicle to ensure that the fording route
you follow is only hub cap deep. Apparently it is advisable to avoid the car
swallowing passages.
2 . In a town with no running water, willingness to take a bucket shower is essential.
(I have found that a bucket shower can be every bit as refreshing as a flowing
water shower back home.)
3 . The members of ESI’s local partner, COREA - - a town economic development
group - - are highly motivated for the successful launch and operation of their
store. The COREA members readily volunteer to take responsibility for each task
that comes up…then they follow through and get the task done.
4 . Marketing in rural Haiti requires some tools that we don’t use much in the
US. For example, a megaphone carrying barker walking through the weekly
market announcing a sales special…or, in a place where literacy is low, product
demonstrations become very important.
5 . And of course I have learned that in soccer-crazy Les Anglais, we can schedule
no meetings during World Cup matches. When Brazil and Argentina were both still in the
chase, this was especially true as the Haitians are wild about those two teams.
Despite enthusiastic adoption in other areas and local availability, the Miracle Stove (Réchaud Mirak in Creole) has not caught on in Les Anglais. People know about it, but few have tried it or seen it in use. The Miracle Stove is a simple modification to the widely used aluminum stove (réchaud tol in Creole). If the Aluminum stove looks something like a spaghetti strainer, the Miracle Stove looks like that spaghetti strainer in a bucket (photos below.) Both stoves use charcoal (or alternative charcoal if available) and are used in the same way, but the Miracle Stove uses 25%-50% less charcoal than the traditional stove, a significant savings both in terms of fuel costs and pressure on the forest stock.
Walking through one of the small weekday markets in town, we met Léonie who fries breadfruit, potatoes and dough to sell to market-goers. Cooking on a typical aluminum stove, she said she had heard of a miracle stove but had never tried one, and she agreed to try using a sample miracle stove from the store for a day. We returned at the end of the following day when she was packing up, and we were greeted with a giant smile. Léonie held up the bag that in the morning had contained one typical day’s worth of charcoal and showed us how, at the end of the day using the miracle stove, 25% of the charcoal was still left in the bag. She saw no downsides to the stove and was delighted to show off the savings – about 10 gourdes or $0.25 worth of charcoal, a significant sum when the going rate for a day’s labor is 100 gourdes. She asked to keep the stove for another day, and we agreed to leave it with her. We took pictures and the other women in the market crowed around to talk about the stove and the pictures. After only a day, Léonie had become a spokesperson for the miracle stove. She continues to use it as the field trial progresses.
Charcoal saved in one day by using the \'Miracle Stove\' instead of a typical stove
Dan Schnitzer speaks at CGI meeting in Port-au-Prince
EarthSpark International’s co-founder Dan Schnitzer gave a rousing talk at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Port-au-Prince last month about the importance of an integrated energy outlook. Dan is now leading the Energy working group for CGI’s efforts in Haiti. Bravo Dan!
The store is painted, and the Les Anglais community group, COREA, is laying plans for a grand opening on market day of next week. (Wednesday, July 7th) We’re still waiting on most of our solar PV products to clear customs, so the “Grand Opening” will focus on the benefits of clean and efficient cook stoves and on general education and outreach promoting both the Clean Energy Store (Magazen Enèji Pwòp in Creole) and the benefits of clean and efficient energy products.
Since the painting of the storefront, there has been a buzz in the town about when the store will open, so COREA members are anxious to move forward. The storefront painting features a solar panel, a Barefoot Power Firefly solar powered lamp, an overhead light, a battery, and a Réchaud Mirak (Miracle Stove.) I can’t decide whether I love the lamp or the Miracle Stove the most. Bob, the local artist who painted the store, is well known around town and has just finished an Obama mural at the local hotel.
Location: Sidwell Friends Middle School
3825 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20016
Free Parking; Metro Accessible
When: Thursday, January 28th 6 - 8pm
RSVP and invite your friends and colleagues here. If you can’t make it, invite your friends and colleagues!
Haiti is reeling from a devastating earthquake, which has left hundreds of thousands homeless and without basic energy services. Portable power options like solar lamps and phone chargers will have an immediate impact, providing not only light and power, but also creating safe communities and individual well-being. A Haitian entrepreneur who survived the earthquake stated, “In the first phase we need small solar lamps for people to use (in the tent camps) as well as solar street lights as a way to light the streets.” He continued, “In the second phase, we need job creation and the best way to help over the long term is therefore to send money to help buy from local solar manufacturers.”
EarthSpark & partners have secured donor commitment for the deployment of 6,500 solar lamps and 800 mobile phone chargers, which are now en route to Haiti!
Residents carrying an injured person late Tuesday night in Port-au-Prince. Aid groups estimate that 3 million people have been affected by the quake. Photo: Jorge Cruz/Associated Press
EarthSpark International is now actively working with a coalition of other Clinton Global Initiative members to coordinate the distribution of solar-powered products. We are partnering with International Relief & Development and organizations like Mercy Corps and Partners in Health to distribute tens of thousands of solar lamps to those in need and to assist these organizations in their disaster relief efforts. Companies including SunNight Solar, SunTransfer, d.Light Design, and BareFoot Power are poised to send over 50,000 solar lamps to Haiti with our help.
There is an emerging humanitarian crisis in Haiti, currently the front page story on every major news website. If you want to help, we recommend donating to the following organizations.
RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS
The Red Cross http://bit.ly/4WodAv
The gold standard in delivering supplies and assistance to disaster victims.
Partners in Health http://bit.ly/7bsUly
PIH sets the bar for delivering healthcare in Haiti. They are working to coordinate medical supplies during this crisis.
The International Office of Migration (IOM) http://bit.ly/7NyHeK
IOM works to bring peace to the slums of Port-au-Prince.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
Yele www.yele.org
This is Wyclef Jean’s organization, which has a multitude of programs rooted in the slums of Port-au-Prince.
Concern Worldwide https://www.concern.net/donate
In Haiti, Concern implements educational, health and peace building projects.
I got a chance to visit Viva Rio’s remarkable compound in Bel Air, a slum neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. Their space includes a biogas digester which recycles human waste collected in their public toilets, wetlands for purifying the waste water from the digester, tilapia ponds filled with the reclaimed water, rooftop gardening using recycled tires and organic residue from the biogas digester and more. They also run a youth Capoeira program, which was a treat to see in action.
