(Spoiler: at the end of this post is a link to a few pictures showing what Hurricane Matthew did in Port-a-Piment)
Jan 10 2017. We have now two baskets on Etsy.com here We hope to add more baskets dolls in a few days
Natalie and I visited Haiti in June 2016. Our interpreter Butler Benoit had told her parents, Minister Jean Benoit and his wife Clairena about our Zanmi dolls and baskets. Butler’s parents run a church, school, community center and a clean water well in a small city called Port-a-Piment in southwest Haiti. Butler’s mother Clairene Benoit got interested in making baskets herself but she also introduced basket making to the women their church community center.
Above Butler’s parents’ church compound in Port-a-Piment. Left the church, middle offices, right the school.
So it seemed to make a lot of sense to visit the Benoit family in Port-a-Piment by hitching rides from Port-au-Prince in buses, taxes and pickup trucks. What a riot for a trip.
Above Butler, his mother Clairene and Natalie in Port-a-Piment in June 2016.
It turned out that Butler had told his mother Clairene about what we do in another part of Haiti (in LaHoye in Central Plateau in Haiti, near the town of Thomonde) where we support 35 women with the Zanmi dolls and baskets they create for themselves.
Meanwhile Clairene had taught 31 other women in their church how to make these baskets. And they had been making baskets by themselves, based on what Butler his mother. The quality of the baskets was amazingly good -we look at the quality in terms of how sellable the baskets are outside of Haiti.
Below is a short picture story of what Hurricane Matthew caused in Port-a-Piment. Good news -none of our women got killed in the hurricane. Bad news -they all lost their homes. More bad news -the roof of Butler’s parents’ church building collapsed. You can browse the pictures below at your leisure here. Any questions or concerns or anything else? Email Natalie Soloway nataliesoloway (at) gmail.com or heikki ketola hketola (at) gmail.com
Things Helping Haiti 