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Fondwa, December 19, 2007 |
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007, Fondwa, Haiti
I had started out in September with 17 students and 7 members of the APF, the Peasant Association of Fondwa. I arranged 6 groups of 4 persons, and asked each group to analyze one business run by the Peasant Association. The APF members did not return after the first session. That was probably due to the fact that only two of them spoke another language in addition to Kreyol. The students all speak Kreyol, French, Spanish and English, the latter two to varying degrees of proficiency. Their Spanish is generally better than their English, so I am teaching in Spanish. The business plans are supposed to be written in Kreyol, as the final products will be presented to the Peasant Association. They can then decide whether they want to implement all or part of each plan.
Not all students had returned to the school from their stay at home by Monday morning. The eight students who were present represented five different groups. I decided that they would all work together and finish the plan for the Auto Parts store as a sample for the other five businesses.
The analysis led to a totally unexpected recommendation. On Wednesday morning we jointly reached the conclusion that the Auto Parts store should be converted to a plant producing clean, healthy drinking water for the village!
The process that brought us there validates the whole teaching project for me. After analyzing the available financial information we quickly reached the conclusion that the store was totally inefficient and not sustainable in its current form. But we found out that originally it had served a social function for the community. It was set up by the Peasant Association to sell kerosene for the peasants’ lamps and gasoline for the various generators owned by the businesses and the university. However, at the beginning of this year an independent entrepreneur opened a gas station in a better location at the other end of the town. Since then the two large tanks behind the store had been sitting empty and unused. Once we started brainstorming what other liquids the peasants could need, we discovered that those who could afford it bought 5-gallon bottles of water either at the Culligan plant in Jakmel for 30 Gourds or of the truck passing through town for 50 Gourds. Those who could not afford either walked 15 minutes to the spring and carried water back to their homes. The spring water is not clean enough to drink untreated and particularly the babies and young children get sick. As there is a planned water project to bring the water in a pipe to the village, a treatment and filtration plant would be the logical extension. A non-performing business could be turned into a valuable service or the community and maybe generate some profit at the same time. This to me would be a huge success story. I am beginning to understand some Kreyol as I listen to their discussions of how to write down their thoughts.
Once we finish the current business plan course, we will embark on a course on project management. The tale of the fully funded yet unfinished project to bring the spring water in a pipeline to the village was the original reason for my wanting to teach in Fondwa in the first place. I can’t wait to find out what suggestions the other students will come up with for their underperforming businesses of the Association.
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