TWP's International Program expands to Haiti

TWP has teamed up with the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) to begin an improved stoves project in the Anse Rouge area of northern Haiti. With funding from Alternative Gifts International, TWP and AMURT are building Rocket stoves to help reduce the pressure on Haiti's remaining forests. To date, we've built 300 stoves as part of the pilot project, and will be ramping up production in 2008 to 4,500 stoves.

Decades of violence, political instability, and poverty have reduced Haiti to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Desperate living conditions have forced the Haitian people to severely over-use their natural resources in an effort to eke out a living. Now, only 1% of Haiti's once-lush tropical forest remains. Desertification, dropping water tables, and devastating erosion and landslides are the tragic results.

The project began in 2006 when Dr. Larry Winiarski of the Aprovecho Research Center traveled to Haiti to adapt a clay version of the Rocket stove to run on charcoal, the predominant fuel source, and since then AMURT has successfully trained several community groups to use and promote the stoves. In July 2007, TWP's International Director Stuart Conway traveled to Haiti to participate in a three-day conference entitled "Reforest Haiti" with other local, national, and international non-governmental organizations. The conference resulted in an action plan for a five-year effort to reforest Haiti. TWP's part in this effort will be to continue building and expanding the Rocket stove program and assisting AMURT in establishing tree nurseries and replanting programs.