Ann Piper Carpenter of Cahaba Heights is a woman of action, pouring her energy into Haiti’s northern coastal area to help impoverished Haitians help themselves. “For about two years now I’ve been going to a town outside of Cap Haitien on the north coast area of Haiti called Terre Rouge. I started going there because the priest at my Episcopal church had worked with some people out of Georgia who established a school and a clinic there, and they are doing excellent work,” Carpenter explains. “Haiti has about 75 percent unemployment. It’s tough. There are so many wonderful organizations that are sending medical and educational care. And I’m not skilled in any of that. The only thing that I thought I could do was to see if we could start some economic development in that area.”

She found a woman in Terre Rouge who was running a school to teach young girls how to sew and has been taking fabric to them for a little over a year. “They’re making tote bags, aprons, napkins, pillowcases. This is some way to give them some money for their work,” she says, noting that she buys the products made or grown from the seamstresses, farmers, and beekeepers, and then brings them to the United States to sell in small quantities. A’Mano (a furniture, gifts, and arts shop) in Mountain Brook Village has been stocking some of the items.

Because her town doesn’t have electricity, a Haitian woman uses a treadle sewing machine at a factory affiliated with the North Coast Development Corporation. (click for larger version)

 

Carpenter, who spends a week out of each month in Terre Rouge, started North Coast Development Corporation a year ago to do business in Haiti. “I don’t want to be a nonprofit because what I’m trying to do is to develop things that Haitians can eventually take over and run themselves,” she says. “I don’t want them to be dependent on aid. I think they want things that they can develop and own, eventually. We’re just trying to facilitate what those products might be and put some people together that give them some market access. If it’s not these products, then at least maybe to get somebody who’s interested in having us make something.”

Andy English is the executive director of North Coast Development. He met Carpenter in Port Au Prince in 2009 and has a dozen years of experience working in the country. He currently spends two weeks out of each month there. “I was a consultant with the World Bank,” English says. “[Ann] was trying to do a little sewing operation down there, mainly to produce scrubs (medical uniforms). She was trying to supply the clinic that she supports, as well as some other clinics in the region. The only problem is that the volume to sustain a factory like that is pretty high. It would take a lot just to break even. We shelved that idea and she asked me to come up to the north to take a look.”

The company leases about 10 acres of land for its projects in the arid North Coast area. “There’s not a lot up there—there’s not a lot of anything. Mostly it’s all open land, brush scrub, not a lot of things that are growing. It’s a formidable place to start anything,” admits English. “When you start looking a little deeper you find a lot of resources that are not being put to use, which is typical of Haiti. There’s a tree called a ‘Neem’ tree that grows well in Haiti, the Indians brought it over about 40 or 50 years ago. Neem seeds can be ground into a powder that is then sprayed on crops as a natural alternative to synthetic pesticides, which the Haitians need for insect-damage control. “When we went to farm, we looked at different things we could do because some things just wouldn’t work. Tomatoes and things that took a lot of water just wouldn’t work,” he says. “We could grow peppers. Half of our 10 acres is planted with peppers and papaya or mango or coconut or banana—anything that I could grow that would accommodate the peppers. We’re able to do minimal watering, which is done by hand. The soil is clay, so the papaya is able to tap into whatever water is there in the soil. Papaya have been outstanding, I’m amazed how fast they do grow. The mango that we planted is indigenous to that region—it’s called a Baptiste mango. It’s a favorite of Haiti but it only grows where we are. So in about three years when they finally start producing, we should be in pretty good shape.”

A company in St. Augustine, Florida, that makes a pepper sauce has expressed interest in North Coast Development’s peppers, and a woman in New York is interested in importing ingredients from Terre Rouge for herbal teas. There has been interest in purchasing Haitian honey to mix with peanut butter, as well as a potential market for the honey to be blended with peppers to make a honey-pepper marinade. The most frustrating hurdle is transportation, says English. “Cap Haitien is limited in how it can export. To get it to Porte Prince, there is no good road. If you try to drive, it can take anywhere from six to eight hours. If the road was good, it’s only a three-hour trip.” He adds that the 2010 earthquake worked as a catalyst in some ways. “In reality, it jump-started and got some attention on some things that were already enacted.”

“We’re just trying to take advantage of whatever resources are there locally for these folks and see what we can help them do. We’ve put a little money into this. Been trying to find markets. That’s what this sale is about,” says Carpenter of an upcoming “Made-In-Haiti Sale” at Little Savannah restaurant. “I’ve got honey, beeswax candles, peppers, sewing, and I’m also bringing a lot of things from that area that other people have made that I didn’t have a thing to do with. They’re all made-in-Haiti products. That’s what it’s all about, trying to get some economy going down there. I’m just figuring that by putting things out here, it’ll catch somebody’s attention, I hope.”

Northern Coast Development has established the first Internet café in the Terre Rouge area. “I was down there when the Techno Café opened and they brought school kids in from the area,” Carpenter says. “It was their first exposure ever to a computer!” She notes that old-fashioned treadle sewing machines operated with a foot pump are used in the garment shop with which she’s affiliated. “We haven’t invested in the larger generators that it would take to put in electric sewing machines,” she says.

“So many people are doing so many things in Haiti and you wonder why doesn’t it get any better,” she says with a hint of resignation. “All the money that goes down there, all the schools, all the clinics. But they just don’t have jobs. They get educated, and then those that can leave, leave. And it’s so impossible to get goods in and out of there. That’s why I have to go every month. I have to take supplies and then I have to go back and pick up the things they make. There’s no UPS or DHL.”

The Haitian people have impressed Carpenter with their intense desire to take care of themselves. She says that there has been no shortage of people seeking work at the North Coast Development farm and sewing shop but unfortunately there are not enough goods being sold yet, so most are turned away. “I had my doubts for many reasons but felt sure it would work,” admits Carpenter. “During a visit there, my son, his friend, and I watched the Alabama-Arkansas game at the Techno Café with our Haitian friends. Imagine that, in a town with no running water or electricity.” &

On Sunday, December 4, Little Savannah restaurant (3811 Clairmont Avenue in Forest Park) will host a Made-In-Haiti Sale from 2 to 6 p.m. There will be valet parking. Items for purchase will include aprons, napkins, bags, skirts, throw pillows, pillowcases, honey, Christmas candles, sea salt, wood carvings, jewelry and Haitian art. Call 381-3553 for details.