Pepole and Place:

We believe sustainable solutions come from joining the entrepreneurship of local people with the ecology of the place where they live. To support that partnership we provide technical resources and facilitate community action. We work from the ground up.

Our current project is JATROPHA PEPINYÈ. Jatropha Pepinyè is a nonprofit Haitian business that grows and sells transplant seedlings of Jatropha curcas for renewable energy, rural economic development, and the re-vegetation of devastated landscapes. The nursery is located in Terrier Rouge in northeastern Haiti on the newly improved Route Nationale.

Nearby, a health clinic nears completion, with solar electrification, pure water supply and proper waste disposal. A community advisory board orients it to local needs - health promotion, pediatrics, dentistry, ophthalmology and, chronic illness.

In the town of Terrier Rouge we operate a Haitian nonprofit business, Jatropha Pepinye, to support the cultivation of Jatropha curcas, a plant that provides a cash crop to farmers, and oil for value-added products like biodiesel and soap. It is one of the only suppliers in Haiti of this plant, which is the feedstock of renewable liquid biofuel. The business itself - a tree nursery - provides jobs and training to local residents and field trials for Jatropha research.