<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Greetings from Haiti,<div><br></div><div>I appreciate the thread and it has me thinking about work we're doing right now with Habitat For Humanity. They've built a new village of 150 homes and will have another 150 added to it by December. The village is in the Santo area, just outside of Leogane, which was part of the earthquake's epicenter. </div><div><br></div><div>With 5-7 people per home, we're talking about a new village of 1,500-2,000 people not to mention hundreds of additional people from surrounding areas that enter daily for water. Habitat For Humanity acknowledges that while they have tons of experience building homes, they don't have experience building full villages and helping community members to develop a sense of community and plan of governance. </div><div><br></div><div>They fear, and for good reason, that if no measures are taken, this nice village of well designed and constructed homes could become a slum. It also has the potential to become an extraordinary community known for safety, community engagement and mutual respect. </div><div><br></div><div>We have a 6-month contract with Habitat For Humanity to help members in the village nurture a culture of participatory decision-making and to create together, a governance plan. We're using our approach called Circles of Change which will include three community wide open space meetings during the 6-month period. The governance plan will likely be a bit traditional in the sense that there will be established rules and decision-making structures. But hopefully, the practice that emerges around how they govern themselves will include lots of invitation and dialogue. </div><div><br></div><div>Local elected officials will be invited to participate in open space meetings and other gatherings. In Haiti, local government is typically underfunded and ineffective. Thus, for communities to run well, it's really up to the community members. This is generally true everywhere but i think some of us likely take things for granted that can help make communities run smoother, which many communities in Haiti don't have: access to potable water, garbage pick-up and sanitation, paved roads/repair of roads, effective water drainage systems, fire departments, adequate police (10,000 for a population of 10 million)</div><div><br></div><div>Here's more about this project with Habitat For Humanity:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.haitipartners.org/2012/04/partnership-with-habitat-brings-circles-of-change-to-santo-housing-community/">http://www.haitipartners.org/2012/04/partnership-with-habitat-brings-circles-of-change-to-santo-housing-community/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Let me know off list if you'd like to receive our proposal to Habitat For Humanity, which responded to the public request for proposal (RFP) they issued.</div><div><br></div><div>Again, thanks for the thread!</div><div><br></div><div>John</div><div>PS The name of the project went from Santo Governance Project (in Haitian-Creole: Pwojè Gouvenans nan Santo), based on Habitat For Humanity's title of the RFP to Pwojè Bon Vwazen (Good Neighbor Project), based on input from people in the village.<br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(20, 79, 174); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(20, 79, 174); font-family: Arial; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; widows: 2; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#858585"><div style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#858585">______________________________</font></span></font></span></div><div style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#858585">John Engle</font></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#858585"> - </font></span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#858585">On the ground regular updates at </font></span></font><a href="http://www.haitipartners.org/the-blog/"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#174FA5">http://www.haitipartners.org/the-blog/</font></span></font></a></span></font></div><div style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0in; 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