Our vision is to :
- Provide a solution to the waste management problem in Haiti
- Provide organic, cost effective and locally sourced products for farmers and growers
- Use natural techniques for remediating the soil we grow our food in
- Teach future generations to take care of the land through healthy bio-agricultural methods
How did we go from a sports and education non profit to a trash and agricultural company? My quest for a way to enrich the soil of Haiti started by trying to solve a problem. This problem is the trash problem that faces Haiti and the lack of fresh and healthy food to feed the two thousand at risks kids we feed and educate at our five centers.
Sports
In 1995, I founded Foundation L'Athletique D'Haiti, (FLADH), a not- for- profit and philanthropic organization which provides free meals, schooling, sports training and after school programs to at risk youth from 5 to 19 years old. My family background prepared me for a life of service to others less fortunate in circumstances. My grandfather and my father were very involved and interested in agriculture as a way to help the farmers create a better livelihood and being self sustainable. I spent my vacations and holidays helping and working on the country farm but sports maintained my interests throughout my youth and my college years. I was a sport enthusiast, and played basketball, football, and baseball with passion. So FLADH was created to channel this passion for sports to educate and engage at risks youth in Cite Soleil. Today, FLADH runs five facilities in the undeserved areas of Haiti to provide food, education and sport programs for over two thousand risk youth.
Trash
In 2009, FLADH had started a trash recycling center in Drouillard. It was another effort to keep the environment around our sport facilities clean and to engage the community in recycling and waste management. FLADH picked up the trash from the neighboring communities and sorted it into categories for compost, plastic recycling, and fuel. It was a small and slow operation, as we did everything by hand and did not have the funds to get the machinery or equipment needed to grow in capacity. In addition, compost does not provide all the natural nutrients needed to remediate agricultural soil. Usually, growers use compost in addition to other added products such as fertilizers to achieve the desired results.
Fast forward eight years to 2018, and the trash problem around Port-au-Prince and in Haiti had gotten worse. There were no laws or rules for where the trash was being disposed. The only approved landfill in Truitier had long since reached maximum capacity. With no control or consequences for illegal dumping, the rivers and ravines in the neighborhoods were being polluted daily by various trash operators and private parties. An investigation of where the trash ends up after it is picked up is much needed to stop illegal dumping. Haiti is a small island: Moving the trash from one spot to another on the island doesn't solve the problem of disease and pollution.
What if we could solve a big part of the trash problem and enrich our soil?
Recycling in Haiti never took off, partly because the pennies that the poor people got for selling plastic bottles picked from trash became less and less worthwhile as China lost its appetite for other countries' waste several years ago. Only ten percent of the trash we picked up were plastic. The other ninety percent consisted of organic waste. FLADH turned organic waste turned into compost. The resulting compost did not work fast enough to rehabilitate poor soil. With composting, approximately 50% of the waste material is oxidized and liberated in the form of carbon dioxide. This results in very measurable increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
There has to be a better way.
Bio-Agriculture
In 2018, I started studying the science of soil rejuvenation, with the idea to create a cleaner environment and a richer soil in Haiti. I studied, devoured every scientific paper I could find and met with international experts on the subject. (See the "Resources" and "Links" for some worthwhile reading.) We also enlisted the help of some of these experts to guide and mentor our goal of cleaning up the waste and enriching the land in Haiti.
Natura Terra Haiti
In 2020, we partnered with Natura Terra™ , a US company whose goal is converting organic waste into bio-products for the soil using natural and organic bio-remediation methods for cleaning and revitalizing the soil.
Natura Terra™ saw the vision for a clean and fertile Haiti and partnered with FLADH to create Natura Terra Haiti in June 2020. This partnership provides us with protocols, technology and resources to help us scale up our operations. Natura Terra™ Haiti uses patented processes of converting organic waste to soil enhancers. One of the patented processes converts organic waste, eliminates virtually all greenhouse gases, and sequesters virtually all carbon to the soil, where it is safely and slowly taken up by microbes, fungi and plants. This process can be done all throughout the year, produces neither heat nor gases, and eliminates nuisance factors like odors and vermin.
This is the solution that can transform Haiti's waste problem into its biggest asset: Fertile growing environment for Organic and Natural Agriculture and Crops.
We have set up a production facility in Cite Soleil,Haiti, where we collect organic waste from farmers and other businesses, and convert them through a patented fermentation process into beneficial enzymes and microbes to rehab bad soil into rich soil.
The science we use to create beneficial organisms to bio-remediate the soil is complex and yet simple, like all things created by Mother Nature. Bio-Agriculture uses beneficial and naturally created micro-organisms to revitalize and rejuvenate the soil and result in healthy food and environment for Haiti. You see, the soil in Haiti has either been fallow for too long or subjected to continuous leaching through flooding or been subjected by chemical fertilizers. Our soil has been damaged. In order for agriculture to be a dominant part of the Haitian solution to poverty and famine, we need to address the trash problem and the soil problem. Imported fertilizer is costly and not always the best organic solution for the crops. Haiti needs locally produced natural solutions to be make its agriculture sustainable and profitable.
Natura Terra Haiti 's products and processes can optimize NATURAL and ORGANIC soil and help crops using ingredient sourced LOCALLY. This will greatly help Haitian growers and farmers to reduce production costs and the unpredictability of the international supply chain.
Our dream is to contribute to a richer and more fertile soil with the help of other like minded people who believe in the natural and organic way of farming. Best of all, our customers are happy to know that by buying our natural and organic products, they also support at risks youth in Haiti, as a percentage of our profits are donated to FLADH (www.athletichaiti.com), to sustain over two thousand at risk youth with schooling, sports training and meals.
To your success and our children's future!
Robert Duval
President
Natura Terra Haiti
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