Four Women Return, Two Haiti Villages to Get Solar Electrification

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2013

Contact: Mèt Ezili Dantò of Zili Dlo and the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Zili Dlo: Clean water, renewable power, cultural education and skills transfer for Haiti / Dlo Pwòp, Enèji Solè, Edikasyon anviwoman e kiltirèl pou Ayiti


PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI : The first four Haiti mothers to be sponsored by Zili Dlo for solar energy skills training arrived back from India on March 17, 2013. They left Haiti in September 2012 and the training in solar energy was for six months, paid for by the Indian government under their programs known as the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation and Special Commonwealth Assistance for Africa Programme (ITEC/SCAAP)

Zili Dlo makes history again. Our four women, ages 35 to 48, are the first peasants and market women from Haiti to receive direct specialized solar-training in India. The two rural mountain villages - Okadè Petionville and Fon Batis, Arcahaie - to get solar electrification. Zili Dlo executed the idea to make this possibility available to Haiti mothers. The program at Barefoot College takes an illiterate woman and makes her into a solar engineer in six months and shows that she can bring solar electrification to a village.

Zili Dlo had been searching for this sort of relevant relief for Haiti's majority population and after extensive research, arranged for our first mothers to be educated in India. While the ladies were in school, Zili Dlo kept in contact with the communities, the energy committee created at each village, and helped their families and husbands with resources to pay for their children's  schooling and other household expenses.

Zili Dlo's executives in Haiti, especially co-director Rea Dol at SOPUDEP, worked together with Mèt Ezili Dantò of HLLN to arrange for the ladies' travel documents, clothes, visas, medical clearances, state approvals and specific Zili Dlo indigenous cultural orientation on Haiti so our mothers would be informed ambassadors on the various magnificent landmarks of our wonderful Haiti homeland. More information on the Zili Dlo solar project is at our: "Ezili Dantò" public page on Facebook http://on.fb.me/IfvcQ0

In Haiti, Zili Dlo is run by both Fanm Vodou Pou Ayiti (Euvonie Georges Auguste) and SOPUDEP (Rea Dol). The team at Zili Dlo is excited about the successful return of our ladies and if all goes well, has plans to electrify two other Haiti villages and give skills training to four more Haiti mothers once this first initiate is completed. To do this, Zili Dlo will be working with more colleges abroad and will set up a training school in Haiti with our initial four women to help train other Haiti solar mothers. Zili Dlo co-executive director, Euvonie Georges Auguste will supervise the second group of villages we will soon choose to get solar electrification, while Rea Dol at SOPUDEP follows through on finishing the first two villages at Fon Batis and Okadè.

Each of our four Haiti mothers will be responsible for running and supervising a specifically community-created energy center and for installing, repairing and providing maintenance for solar lighting units in the households of their villages for a minimum of five years

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Special thanks for the Indian government for making the ITEC/SCAAP program available to our Haiti mothers and for paying for the education, expenses and travel to Barefoot College. Zili Dlo sends a great thank you to the honorary Consul of India in Haiti, Eddy Handal, Mrs. Pierreline from his office and to everyone at the Haiti foreign ministry particularly Mrs. Euvonie Georges Augustes, for all the great help on this project. The entire Zili Dlo team also gives special Chapo ba thanks to our four mothers - Marie Andrea Saint Felix, Marie Ilma Meriste, Madeleine Saint Louis and Magalie Luc - for the good job they did at Barefoot College representing Haiti, Zili Dlo and their mountain communities. We thank all the husbands of our solar women for their unwavering support throughout this process, their children and the entire community at Okadè and Fon Batis for making this project successful.

For specifics on phase two of this Zili Dlo solar electrification project, contact Mèt Ezili Dantò of HLLN at erzilidanto@yahoo.com. 

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PHOTOS

Four Zili Dlo solar mothers  at Toussaint Lourverture airport in Port au Prince Haiti.
Marie Ilma Meriste, Marie Andrea Saint Felix, Magalie Luc and Madeleine Saint Louis return to Haiti March 17, 2013 after six months of Zili Dlo sponsored training in Tilonia India on how to fabricate, install, use and repair solar panels and solar lighting equipment. 

Marie Ilma Meriste, Marie Andrea Saint Felix, Madeleine Saint Louis, Marc Diew Benit, Marc Dieu Benit, Rousso Dol and Magalie Luc at Toussaint Lourverture airport, Port au Prince.

Zili Dlo: Dlo Pwòp, Enèji Solè, Edikasyon anviwoman e kiltirèl pou Ayiti 

Zili Dlo delegation made up of the Haiti solar mothers children, husbands, families and Zili Dlo arrival delegation meet our mothers at the airport today, March 17, 2013 after these rural women from remote Haiti village make their first ever trip outside of Haiti to learn about renewable energy and come home to transfer these skills to others rural women and men in their communities.

Zili Dlo se Dlo Pwòp, Enèji Solè, Edikasyon anviwoman e kiltirèl pou Ayiti
Zili Dlo: Clean water, renewable power, cultural education and skills transfer for Haiti

Co-executive director of Zili Dlo - Rea Dol heads delegation of families, friends, children, husbands, uncles and members of the remote rural communities of Okade and Fon Batis to join the first four Zili Dlo solar engineers at the airport, welcoming them back to Haiti after 6-months schooling in solar electrification in Tilonia, India. 

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
Zili Dlo, created by Ezili Danto of HLLN and run in Haiti by Rea Dol and Euvonie Georges Auguste (Fanm Vodou Pou Ayiti and Rea Dol (SOPUDEP) has a mission to make renewable energy, clean water/sanitation and renewable access a reality for the poorest and most marginalized rural and urban communities in Haiti through relevant skills transfer and indigenously relevant culturally grounding education. Currently, Zili Dlo women run a solar powered, high-tech water filtering unit delivering clean wate. Four illiterate rural mothers will electrify, with solar lamps, re-chargers and panels at two remote villages and run a mini power plant at a special community-created energy center for their villages. Our intention is to complement our solar renewable sources by adding wind turbine and some generators powered by Haiti-environmentally friendly biofuels such as Jathropa. Make a donation 

Marie Ilma Meriste, Fritzer Louis, Marie Andrea Saint Felix, Mme Pierreline Sénat Executive Secrétary, Consulate of India for Haiti, Magalie Luc, Elisee Henry and Madeleine Saint Louis.

Zili Dlo se Dlo Pwòp, Enèji Solè, Edikasyon anviwoman e kiltirèl pou Ayiti
The beautiful and most talented Mme Pierreline Sénat, Executive Secrétary, Consulate of India for Haiti is flanked by the four Zili Dlo mothers returning from India and two husbands. Madame Pierreline was a tremendous asset to us. The plane was three hours late arriving out of Guadaloupe, having begun the 12hour journey from Deli to France, France to Guadaloupe and Guadaloupe to Haiti. Ms. Pierreline from the Haiti Consul's office stayed with our delegation at the Lourverture airport when they arrived and with her inside access, was able to shepherd our mothers through the process and assure those waiting outside that our solar mothers had indeed arrived. Thanks for the special attention and working on a Sunday too! Much obliged Mme Pierreline Sénat. Thank you very much for your kindness, professional courtersy and for going way beyond the call of duty for our Zili Dlo solar mothers! This folks, I am most proud to say, is a shining example of a competent and capable Haiti. Loved it! Chapo ba bel fanm. Mesi anpil.- Ezili Dantò of HLLN