APF, the Association of Peasants of Fondwa, began in 1988 when Fr. Joseph Philippe, a Haiti member of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (Spiritans), returned to his native community and invited some of his neighbors to sit together and talk about their lives in Fondwa. Fr. Joseph is a man of great vision and seemingly boundless energy! He had a vision for how the people of Fondwa could help themselves and, and in the process, create and test a model of sustainable development that could be applied to other parts of rural Haiti. He knew it would take time, and patience, hard work, and much help from outside of Haiti. But visionary leadership was the most important ingredient and he had PLENTY of that!
Fr. Joseph tells a story about the early days of APF. (He won't tell me if it really happened as he tells it, but like all stories, it contans a truth whether it really happened or not!) After the original APF group had been meeting for some time one of them said to Fr. Joseph: We should write down what we say here. Will you buy us a notebook? Fr. Joseph replied, I know where they sell notebooks in Port au Prince. They cost $1.25. I don't have $1.25, he protested. Fr. Joseph looked him in the eye and asked, How much DO you have? I have a nickel. Put it on the table. Looking at the next man Joseph asked, “How much do YOU have?. I have 10 cents. Put it on the table, was the response. By the time they had gone around the table they had $1. Then Fr. Joseph said, I have a quarter. Now we can buy a notebook! APF was founded on that principle - that by pooling resources and getting some help from the outside, the community could take responsibility for itself and together accomplish what no one could do by himself!
Today APF has over 400 members divided into 23 groups. Nineteen of the groups come from the different "habitations" (neighborhoods) in the Fondwa region. Four other groups are not geographically based. Two are women's groups. The other two are youth groups - AJF (Association of Youth of Fondwa), comprised of youth from the Tomb Gateau area and "Kojedaf", comprised of youth from the Belvue 1 area.
Both youth groups have about 30-35 active members. Each elects officers and conducts regular meetings. Both are active in community projects such as reforestation, "capturing" water (improving natural springs and collecting water in cisterns or piping it to public fountains), road repair, and building public latrines.
With financing from B.U.S.T. and some additional help from PIP the Kojedaf group has constructed a "hang out place" (gazebo) close to the APF visitors' center. Kojedaf has a small gasoline generator and regularly provides evening cinema (via video tapes) for its members and the children living in the area. Its members participate in beach outings together and have also visited sites of historic significance in Haiti such as Cap Haitian and the Citadelle (a fortress built to defend against a reinvasion of Napoleon's army after it suffered defeat in the Haitian revolution).
AJF has no meeting center of its own, but hopes to build a public place where people can gather and students can come to study. It has planted more than 30,000 trees and built several public "showers" near water sources where people can bathe in relative privacy. (Privacy as we know it is unknown in rural Haiti.)
Young people comprise the majority of the approximately 8 million people living in Haiti. Human capacity building is one of the highest priorities for APF and one of the greatest needs in Haiti. The future of Haiti, like the future of all countries, belongs to the youth and Haiti's greatest asset is the energy and talent of its young people. With that in mind it's no wonder that APF sees education and youth formation as the principal tools that can help people help themselves build sustainable communities!
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