Santo Household Sanitation
In September 2012, GiveLove and Habitat for Humanity (HfH) launched the largest community-run Humanure composting project in Haiti, located in Santo, Léogâne, 18-miles west of Port-au-Prince.
Habitat for Humanity, and the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project built 300 new homes for earthquake victims. When the OTJI toilet system they installed failed after six months of use, they contacted GiveLove to help them find a local solution for on-site waste management. The OTJI toilet was single-vault Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilet (UDDT) designed to function in dry, arid environments. But in Haiti’s tropical climate, the toilet system failed to perform to specification due to heavy rains and humidity —leaving families with a foul and messy toilet system that they refused to maintain. Our design team worked with Habitat’s architects, and volunteers from the community to train a team of six compost technicians to manage all of the sanitation and composting needs of the community. Local carpenters built the compost toilets, and volunteers from the U.S. Embassy helped GiveLove complete the compost site. GiveLove organized a 24-households pilot study to test the system before scaling the project to all 300 homes in February 2013, after the Santo community leadership voted for the project. The Santo project provided clean compost toilets to 270 families for over 2.5 years. Households participated in the bi-weekly management of the sanitation system by bringing their containers to the community compost facility for processing and cleaning. The community compost facility produced over 15 tons of high-quality compost in the first year. GiveLove’s agronomist and compost technicians worked with the community to plant vegetables, chili peppers, and fruit tree seedlings with the finished compost. Habitat for Humanity’s Community Engagement team worked with the new homeowners to establish a pay-for-service model that was approved at the onset of the project. Santo Case Study, Click here
GiveLove established the first GREEN SCHOOL program in September 2010 to design on-site composting systems for primary schools. We started our EcoSan trainings at the AMURT School in the SINEYAS camp in Delmas — home to 35,000 Haitians living in temporary shelters and tents. Our Green School project provided over 500 children with clean compost toilets year-round. The AMURT compost technicians went on to train six additional compost technicians at the Santo Project in Leogane — a model that became the basis for our Training of Trainers Program.
The Green School program transformed urban spaces into lush gardens and provided green space, shade, and nutritious produce. Learning ecological principles in action, the program helped children gain awareness about composting, recycling, and sustainability. The AMURT school was toured by hundreds of visitors and VIPs who wanted to see the compost toilets. The entire camp was removed in 2014 as Haiti's reconstruction of the area gained momentum. GiveLove also worked with Architecture for Humanity to design three large Green School campuses from 2012 to 2014 — developing new designs and site plans for many challenging contexts. Haiti Partners continues to provide Green Sanitation at their main campus in Petionville.
