Thriving farming and fishing communities are key to eradicating poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in Haiti.

We support and invest in Haiti’s farming and fishing communities so they can break the cycle of hunger and poverty by becoming the country’s top producers.

CURRENT EMERGENCY

As You Celebrate – You can Also Help!

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, at 3:00 AM the 400 Mawoso gang viciously attacked the town of Ganthier.  

All anyone could do is grab one’s children and run as fast and as far as possible. Once the town emptied, gang members went from house to house,  looted it and burned it.

Residents formed clusters of groups that spread widely over the region.  They live in hiding, are scared, and hungry. Food is the most critical need.

As most of you know, our teams are made of local residents – and are now among those who had to flee.

Despite the risks and danger -  and thanks to our local teams who are among the refugees - we have been able to organize food deliveries. Each food package contains rice, beans, and cooking oil. One package costs $16 dollars and enables a family of six people to eat for 8-10 days.  

To avoid at all cost the dire consequences of persistent hunger such as chronic diseases or children’s stunted mental and physical development, we do what we can to make the food deliveries on a regular schedule.  

In America, this is a time of celebration with our family and friends. Would you, kindly, consider to help providing a basic food package to one family that has been uprooted, lives in fear, and experiences hunger. Any amount would be deeply appreciated.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, mèsi anpil.

If you can, please donate – any donation no matter how small makes a big difference. Thank you – mèsi anpil !!

Photo of Ganthier inhabitants in hiding-food distribution 9-11-24
Pregnant woman and her husband receiving their food package. EWI second food distribution, September 2024. " (c) EWI

ECOWORKS INTERNATIONAL

Our Purpose

Established January 1st , 2009, to work specifically in Haiti, Ecoworks International invests in and works with smallholder farmers and their communities.

Smallholder farmers represent more than 95% of all Haitian farmers, and their labor contributes 20% of the country’s GDP. Moreover, the agricultural sector employs full or part time 60% of the country’s workforce. Yet, most live in dire poverty.

Help reducing poverty and hunger is our priority, and we address it by collaborating with rural communities on responding to their needs. Together we pursue solutions to improve their lives, livelihoods, environmental protection, and social equity.

Hence our mission: To Bolster Haiti’s capacity to feed itself sustainably and build shared prosperity.

Our Approach

Our focus is regional development because strong regions make a strong and more equitable country.

Our integrated approach encompasses:

  • Economic growth that emphasizes enhanced agricultural production, and an integrated value and supply chain to improve earnings
  • Knowledge sharing (education, professional training)
  • Environmental regeneration and security
  • Adoption of technology that benefits food producers and related sectors
  • Anchor Young adults in regional communities

We partner with local communities on identifying common priorities, and jointly develop responsive initiatives.

To ensure that what we build today will continue beyond our presence, we prioritize self-sufficiency and self-funding.  

When regional development thrives it advances decentralization which has been a priority for the Haitian nation since its inception, and is part of its constitution.

IMPORTANT FACTS

  • 60% of the Haiti’s workforce is employed in the agricultural sector.
  • More than 95% of all Haiti’s food producers are smallholder farmers and artisanal fishers. Their labor produces 20% of the country’s GDP. Yet, almost all live in dire poverty in villages without water, sewage, or power. The same conditions as those of their elders and ancestors for the past 200 years. It is paramount to pursue a new economic model.
  • Investing in Haiti’s food producers is to offer support while they strive to lift themselves out of poverty. Their success will radically change the country’s economy. If 60% of the population, or about 7,200,000 Haitians, would improve their lives and livelihoods, their purchase power would increase, so would their ability to send all their children to school, access healthcare to improve their health, initiate broader entrepreneurship, and build more diversified local economic growth dynamic.

This is why since our inception, we have committed to developing the agricultural sector because of the conviction that Haitian food producers can feed Haiti.

Donate now
Trees Planted - Donate X Webflow Template
Agricultural Cooperatives
Jointly building five agricultural cooperatives farmers own, manage, and lead to grow a sustainable economy
Acres Restored - Donate X Webflow Template
2,500 to 12,500+
Farmers and their family members directly benefit from the cooperatives
Lived Changed - Donate X Webflow Template
20,000 Residents
Mitigating floods to protect 20,000 mountain residents
Animales Saved - Donate X Webflow Template
Climate Change
Reducing effects of climate change by practicing reforestation and agroforestry
Awareness - Donate X Webflow Template
Women's Equity
Promoting women’s equity to ensure social justice and build a more resilient economy
Water Cleaned - Donate X Webflow Template
Education
Supporting inclusive education; feeding school children; promoting civics to cultivate responsible citizenship and non-violence

Our Regional Programs and Disaster Responses

Lake Azuei Region

Talia Farms

The Commune of Ganthier and EWI signed a cooperative agreement in the first months of our arrival in 2009...

Northern Region

Northern Integrated Agro-Economic  Development (Niad)

Northern Integrated Agro-Economic  Development (Niad)...

Emergency Responses

Current Emergency, Earthquakes 2010 & 2021

In addition to long-term development programs, EWI also responds to major disasters that occur within Haiti’s borders...

Your Support is Key to Our Work!

In the regions where security has prevailed, we form important multisectoral partnerships to build a cohesive socio-economic program that benefits men, women and children to improve their daily lives and help build a better future.

Please consider making a donation today!
Thank you for your generosity.

Donate now

Emergency Lunch School Program

Photo of  the Emergency School Lunch Program at The P. Lumumba School, Haiti
Photo by Ralph Lapointe, © RL & Ecoworks Int'l

URGENT

Due to the disintegrating economy resulting from gang violence, we have established the Emergency School Lunch Program that provides children with their only wholesome meal of the day. We serve 300 meals per day or 48,600 meals per school year. One meal costs 85 cents.

If you can, please help

Donate now
Photo of  the Emergency School Lunch Program at The P. Lumumba School, Haiti
Photo by Ralph Lapointe, © RL & Ecoworks Int'l

Location

EcoWorks began operating in Haiti in 2009, taking root in the Lake Azueï region. Located directly east of the capital, at the border with the Dominican Republic. This region comprises the plain of Cul-de-Sac, the country’s largest lake, Azueï, and Haiti’s highest mountain range of La Selle, whose main peak is over 8,000 feet.

Read more
Located in Nippes
Petit-Trou-de-Nippes
Haiti
Hover
to see review
Located directly east of the capital, at the border with the Dominican Republic
Lake Azueï
Haiti
Map of Haiti
Our Location
Ganthier, Thomazeau, Fond Verrettes, and Cornillon delineate the geographical scope of our Talia Farms Program and they have a total population of 120,000.

Locations of our programs

Haiti is experiencing an unprecedented period of violence and disarray.  

Legend

1. LAKE AZUEI REGION - Talia Farms

  • The P. Lumumba School, supporting the curriculum, and the 300 daily school lunches
  • Coop 1- CAMA, Agriculture Women’s Goat Proj. Seed Rollover Fund
  • Coop 2 – CADET, Animal Husbandry Subsistence Agriculture Women Small-merchant Fund

2. PORT-AU-PRINCE - 2010 Earthquake

  • The Bernard Mevs Hospital
    Renovated a wing & installed a Physical Therapy Ctr; brought highly trained Israeli teams to train staff & professionals; organized rollover med teams from the US; Provided lunches to staff patients & their families; donated an ambulance, etc.

3. NIPPES DEPARTMENT - 2021  Earthquake

  • In response to local fishers, we jointly rebuilt the underwater fish attractor system to restore income.

4. NORTH & NORTH-EAST DEPARTMENTS - North Integrated Agro-Economic Development (NIAD)

  • AGRO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
    Rice & Cacao production; use of technology; youth retention, regional capital formation and entrepreneurship.
In response to local fishers, we jointly rebuilt the underwater fish attractor system to restore income.
3. NIPPES DEPARTMENT - 2021  Earthquake
Haiti
Hover
to see review
The P. Lumumba School, supporting the curriculum, and the 300 daily school lunches.
Coop 1- CAMA, Agriculture Women’s Goat Proj. Seed Rollover Fund.
Coop 2 – CADET, Animal Husbandry Subsistence Agriculture Women Small-merchant Fund.
1.  LAKE AZUEI REGION - Talia Farms
Haiti
2010 EARTHQUAKE
The Bernard Mevs Hospital
Renovated a wing & installed a Physical Therapy Ctr; brought highly trained Israeli teams to train staff & professionals; organized rollover med teams from the US; Provided lunches to staff patients & their families; donated an ambulance, etc.
2. PORT-AU-PRINCE - 2010 Earthquake
Haiti
AGRO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Rice & Cacao production; use of technology; youth retention, regional capital formation and entrepreneurship.
4. NORTH & NORTH-EAST DEPARTMENTS-NIAD
Haiti
Photo Haiti Map

The context of working in Haiti today

Haiti is experiencing an unprecedented period of violence and disarray.  

Despite the upheaval Haiti has been experiencing for the last two and a half years, we resolutely continue our work, collaborating with the agricultural cooperatives we jointly established and manage, but which now belong to the farmers, and supporting the school we helped build.

Read more
Haiti Old building in the town.
Live Changed - Donate X Webflow Template
The Haitian Family
Jointly we build assets Haitian farmers own.
Heart Icon - Donate X Webflow Template
47,500+
2,500 to 12,500 individuals organizing themselves intocooperatives

Talia Farms – The Core Development Program

Based on farmers’ input, we launched the Talia Farms Program, an integrated development initiative – based on EWI-farmers partnerships – for the Lake Azueï region. The purpose is to boost the local economy and reinforce it through environmental, social, and disaster relief programs to make it inclusive, integrated, and sustainable.

About - Donate X Webflow Template

Key Talia Farms’ Priorities:

1. Enable to Organize

Enable smallholder farmers to organize themselves into five regional agricultural cooperatives they own and control to increase their yields and diversify their crops, improve their income and standard of living, connect them to markets, seek funding, as feasible protect them against loss and market fluctuations, and gain a powerful voice in matters vital to their well-being.

2. Education

Support education and literacy, culture, women’s equity, and youth integration and retention and working towards the day when all girls, boys, women and men in all nations across the world have finished secondary school and are educated and literate.

3. Flood Mitigation

Implement flood mitigation and topsoil regeneration to protect at-risk populations and fields, and to increase yields and quality of their crops; start the agroforestry component to provide additional environmental security, improve topsoil quality, and repair parts of the local ecology.

4. Agricultural Production

Establish a regional agricultural production hub to expand the domestic market, and open a food transformation center to manufacture products for export.

The aim is to effectively address the deeply entrenched rural poverty by transferring knowledge, know-how, and resources to smallholder farming families who can drive the change towards regional economic growth.

EWI COOPERATIVES

About Cooperatives

Cooperatives enable smallholder farmers to remain independent producers, one of their most important, non-negotiable conditions.  At the same time, members of the cooperative can decide to aggregate their agricultural production to attract bigger buyers who buy higher quantities and order more regularly, enabling farmers to plan better and become more efficient.

Read more

Our Cooperatives

COOPERATIVE # 1 – CAMA

Upon bringing up the cooperative as a possible solution to Marre-Roseau farmers’ expressed needs and aspirations, they stated that they had never heard of a cooperative. Just eighteen months later, they owned one.

Read more
Cooperatives Farmers

Cooperatives' Training and Projects

TRAINING

Training is at the heart of establishing a cooperative. It takes two to three years to train members and their committees to assume the full responsibility for managing a cooperative. However, from the start, members are encouraged to take over certain responsibilities and propose projects they deem to be a priority.

Read more

Our work is divided into 4 core building blocks:

Tree Reforestation - Donate X Webflow Template

Economy:

Economic development

Economic development driven by smallholder farmers is key to eradicating poverty.

Care And Love - Donate X Webflow Template

Environment:

Remediation and stewardship
Establish environmental remediation and stewardship as an intrinsic part of agricultural production and economic growth...

Read more about our projects
River And Lake Cleaning - Donate X Webflow Template

Social Protection:

The goal of this program is...

Is to strengthen the social fabric of participating communities by supporting education, healthcare, women’s equity...

Read more about our projects
Community Help - Donate X Webflow Template

Disaster Relief:

2010 earthquake
Hurricanes
2021 earthquake Hurricane and flooding

Read more about our projects

EWI Disaster Relief

THE EARTHQUAKE IN 2021
On August14th, 2021, Haiti was struck by a powerful 7.2 earthquake, devastating the southwestern peninsula. The latest information indicates: that 2,200 were dead, 12,000 were injured, and more than 300 were missing; close to 130,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, and an estimated 700,000 people are homeless.

Read more

Talia Farms Development PROGRAM

No one can more effectively and sustainably eliminate poverty than those who live in it. They know what they need, what they aspire to, and they are ready to do what is humanly possible to lift themselves out of this deeply entrenched and unjust situation they are forced to live in.  Talia Farms is designed to support and invest in them and their communities, and accompany them on their journey out of poverty and hunger, into wealth building and autonomy.

Our work is divided into 4 core building blocks:

Tree Reforestation - Donate X Webflow Template

Economy:

Economic development driven by smallholder farmers is key to eradicating poverty.

Care And Love - Donate X Webflow Template

Environment:

Remediation and stewardship
Establish environmental remediation and stewardship as an intrinsic part of agricultural production and economic growth...

River And Lake Cleaning - Donate X Webflow Template

Social:

The goal of this program is to strengthen the social fabric of participating communities by supporting education, healthcare, women’s equity...

Community Help - Donate X Webflow Template

Disaster Relief:

2010 earthquake
Hurricanes
2021 earthquake Hurricane and flooding

Changing poverty at its roots

Ecoworks International helps rural farmers build sustainable businesses. Learn more and Donate Today!

Ecoworks International Donate today

Prime Minister
MICHELE PIERRE-LOUIS

Michèle Pierre-Louis, former Prime Minister of Haiti (2008-2009); and the force behind transforming a huge swath of land into a magnificent public park, next to one of Haiti’s worst urban shantytowns, Martissant. Part of her intent was to also help revitalize this area.  She is the recipient of numerous awards for her exceptional work to improve lives in Haiti.

EWI organized a guided visit for the Prime  Minister to visit the region and some of our initiatives. She was impressed with the work done and expressed her concern about the inadequate local road system hampering farmers’ ability to deliver crops to markets. This is one of the reasons EWI is initiating a flood mitigation project to better protect local life, livelihoods and the main road leading to Marre-Roseau.

Testimonials

What are the local communities saying

"Nou te travay ak EWI pou twa dènye ane yo. Yo te ede nou etabli koperativ agrikòl, CAMA,  nou posede epi aprann kijan pou jere. Ansanm nou retabli wout nou ki te domaje anpil. Nou bezwen wout sa pou nou rive nan mache a pou nou vann rekòt nou an. Nou te konstwi kèk sistèm kolekte dlo lapli, epi nou espere bati yon sistèm pou bese inondasyon ki detwi wout nou chak sezon lapli. Nou bezwen tou yon klinik sante".

“ We have been working with EWI for the last three years. They helped us establish our agricultural cooperative, CAMA, we own and learn how to manage. Together we restored our seriously damaged road. We need that road to get to the market to sell our harvest. We built some rainwater collecting systems, and we hope to build a system to mitigate floods that destroy our road each rainy season.  We also need a health clinic”

Louisinis Louis
Leader of the CAMA agricultural cooperative of Marre-Roseau, and the region's CASSEC