OUR INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN HAS FINISHED BUT YOU CAN STILL DONATE HERE!
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ayiti Resurrect is a grassroots
collective that formed in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti based
on principles of solidarity, creativity, and collective resilience. A team of
visionary artists, holistic healers, and ecological innovators with bloodlines
in Haiti and the African Diaspora, we have organized ourselves to work in
collaboration with a rural community in Leogane to support the social,
spiritual, emotional, physical, and environmental health of the community.
For the past three years, Ayiti Resurrect has been building powerful
relationships with residents of Komye, a village just outside of Leogane city,
the epicenter of the earthquake. Our community partners include farmers,
healers, leaders, teachers, and artists. We are working together to
cultivate a vision for collective healing, self-determination, diasporic
collaboration, and community empowerment.
We are asking for your support as we organize
our fourth delegation focusing on arts, health, and sustainability. We are
fundraising for the supplies needed for our project areas, support for the
local community and our partners, as well as translators, healthcare workers,
and other professionals in Haiti who will be joining us. We are building
on the relationships forged and the work sustained over the past three years. With
your help, Ayiti Resurrect's commitment to supporting the health and resilience of this incredible community will continue.
Background
Our
first delegation coincided with the one year anniversary of the earthquake in
2011, where we collaborated with Ayiti Cherie Healing Project, local Haitian
organizations, and community partners. We conducted art and music therapy
workshops, implemented a mental wellness clinic, hosted a commemoration and
created a monument to honor those who passed in the earthquake.
The
following year in 2012, the project grew to 20 Ayiti Resurrect delegates from
across the diaspora – from Brooklyn to Oakland, Port au Prince to Mirebalais.
We worked with local healers, artists, farmers and community organizers in
Haiti to orchestrate a breadth of tremendous offerings: Mask Making, Stone
Sculpture, Recycled Arts, Storytelling and Poetry, Dance and Drumming, Yoga and
Meditation, Reproductive Health workshops, Reiki, Peer to Peer Counseling, Herbal
Medicine Walks, Sustainable Agriculture Skill-Shares, Composting Toilet
Construction, and Solar Oven Building.
In February 2013, Ayiti Resurrect returned once again to Komye for a
reforestation project in partnership with Tech Valley High School, Green Haiti,
and the Mango Growers Association of Komye. Eight energized high school
students from New York teamed up with numerous community volunteers from Komye
and planted 1,000 fruit trees to provide shade, nutrition, and income to the
area. We also planted vetiver to help stop erosion and retain water, and
created a food forest permaculture model garden.
2014
Delegation
Now
as we approach the 4th anniversary of the earthquake, Ayiti
Resurrect is preparing for its fourth delegation to activate the next round of
projects:
Arts: This year's arts focus will build upon the expertise and incredible
skill of artists in Komye in stone carving, theater, dance, and visual arts,
toward a vision of economic self-sufficiency. Ayiti Resurrect is convening some
phenomenal professional Haitian artists from the United States and the
Caribbean to work with local artists on marketing, access to wider audiences
and resources, and honing their respective crafts. Additionally we are
partnering with the local secondary school to offer a series of creative and
performance arts workshops, inviting local artists to teach alongside artists
from the delegation. Ayiti Resurrect will be donating art supplies so that the
students can continue their creative work throughout the year.
Health: There is a
strong need for preventative health care in Komye, a community separated from
urban Leogane by a river crossing and seasonally impassable roads. We will
collaborate with local nurses on a mobile clinic to address first aid, dental,
and health consultation needs. And we will facilitate a series of workshops
including protection of women and girls from abuse, reproductive health, and
yoga and breathing techniques for mental wellness. Ayiti Resurrect will also be
donating much needed medical supplies for the ongoing health clinic.
Sustainability: The focus of this year’s sustainability work will
build on the successful planting of the 1000-tree fruit forest last year, by
creating systems to get the tree crop to market year round. We will build a
pilot solar mango drying system to convert the surplus unmarketable portion of
the mango crop to useful product. Dried mango and mango powder address Vitamin
A deficiency in the off season and increase farm family income year round. The
Mango Growers Association of Komye will continue tree plantings in the rainy
season as well as plant species for erosion control purposes with the resources
donated by Ayiti Resurrect.
Commemoration: We will commemorate the 4th anniversary
of the loss of lives in the devastating earthquake on January 12th, 2014, and
celebrate the community’s resilience through a sharing of the arts and learning
accomplished during the delegation.
![]()
Original limited edition hand silk-screened Print by Artist Crystal Clarity inspired by Ayiti Resurrect, Perk for contribution of $150 or more!
CONTRIBUTE!!!
We
are a grassroots endeavor of two communities coming together across bloodlines
and continents to facilitate healing from within. We are not an NGO with
foundational or institutional backing, we are representatives from our
hometowns and our lineages. Your support means everything as we engage in this
all volunteer work dedicated to cultivating genuine people-to-people solidarity
among members of the African diasporic family while reinforcing the strength
and autonomy of the Haitian community.
Through the realization of this project dedicated to transforming trauma
through collective healing, we hope to contribute in a small but significant
way to building a healthy, sustainable and more just existence for the future
generations of all Haitians.
Please
contribute generously to our campaign! Every drop makes a difference! And visit our website www.ayitiresurrect.org or facebook page (Ayiti Resurrect) for more
information about our work!
Other Ways You Can Help
1) Spread the word!-- Please help get the word out about Ayiti Resurrect and this campaign. Use the share tools to
make it easy. Together we can do this!!!
2) Donate your frequent flier miles
to one of our delegates!
3) Sponsor
a delegate-- all of the delegates from our diaspora team are paying for
their airfare to and from Haiti, and all personal expenses, in addition to
volunteering their time. We are committed to this model to ensure that all of
our collective fundraising goes directly to the community. That said, many of
us are struggling to be able to afford these costs. Airfare is between $600 and $900, and lodging and food is $50-60 a day.
4) Heal
the healers-- consider making an offering specifically to delegates for
self-care to prepare or rejuvenate from the trip. We will all be
experiencing, giving, and taking in a lot, and it's crucial that we take care
of our bodies and spirits in the process. Offerings for acupuncture, reiki, or
massage to support our team would be greatly appreciated!
5) Donate
a laptop-- members of the community of Cormier have asked for support
and help to build a small computer lab in their community center. In a country
where 100,000 computers go obsolete every day, consider donating a working laptop to realize this dream in a place where the closest computer is
almost an hour away.
6) Donate art and/or medical supplies -- art supplies for the children at the school in Komye and children in the larger community; medical supplies for the health clinic. A full list of needed medications can be found here on our website.
Contributions must be received by January 2nd, 2014.
Please email us directly at ayitiresurrect@gmail.com
to make arrangements if you can help in any of these ways. Thank you for any
help you can offer!
We are truly grateful for all the support and blessings we have received and continue to receive. And we are thrilled and humbled to be doing this work with our brothers and sisters in Ayiti. We appreciate all of your prayers and meditations and continued blessings as we embark on another journey for collective healing.
With Love and Gratitude,
Naima Penniman, Angelique V. Nixon, Beatrice Anderson, and Leah Penniman
Ayiti Resurrect Core Collective