Road to Fondwa

Last week I braved some stormy weather and headed to NYU Poly in Brooklyn for an event called Rediscovering Haiti. Not only did it sound interesting, but it was hosted by their student chapter of Engineers Without Borders! I love those guys!

The event started with a historical overview of Haiti. I had no idea they were the first independent black republic, and I never considered what effects that may have on their GDP. Turns out slave ownin folk don't like to do business with a country of free slaves, whoda thunk it.

After some context we watched the excellent documentary Road to Fondwa.





If you haven't seen it I recommend you do. It's only about 30 min long and you can watch it in its entirety here. The film takes place before the earthquake and discusses the many grassroots efforts in the Fondwa region of Haiti that the community developed over the last 20 years. It is really great! As I mentioned before, you can watch it here.

After the screening we Skyped with one of the producers of the film! He was in Miami and had just returned from Haiti and he described the devastation he witnessed in the country. He also reminded us that the rainy season is about to begin, making a horrible situation, horribler. But while the buildings of Fondwa were destroyed, I'm sure the knowledge of the community will enable them to rebound and continue after this tragedy.

Hopefully I'll have the chance to get involved with the work EWB is doing in Haiti and beyond, and I would encourage all of you to find out a way that you can get involved. Additionally, I used the event for networking just like I'm supposed to do! Also, I ate lots of free food :) Now I'm sure you tire of hearing about all the free food so I'll just tell you that it included Cola Champagne!

Oh yeah and go watch the movie and tell me what you think!