I’m back in Haiti. One moment I was cross-country skiing in Boston and the next on a tropical, sunny island sweating and dying to take off my heavy jeans that kept me warm on an overly air-conditioned flight. It’s always a joy to be in Haiti (for many reasons besides the warming sun!) and this time is no different. As Executive Director of a new nonprofit, my days are very distracted and busy when I’m in my Boston office. In Boston (or while traveling in NYC or Washington DC), I’m running from donor meeting to donor meeting, writing grant proposals, working to keep our systems and finances in order, maintaining communications, figuring out how to grow a team on a shoestring, and collaborating with my fabulous board to ensure that all the pieces are coming together in a strategic way. Determining our priorities is always a challenge with so many things on our plates.
A view over the Cap Haitien area
But when I’m in Haiti that chaos subsides a bit. In part by force because good internet is rare here and I’m not as tied to my email account as I usually am. When I’m in Haiti I am completely immersed in our programmatic work. Here I step away from my computer and stand in the building where we’re piloting. I speak with the first two women in our program. I sit and plan with our women’s NGO partners. I walk by beehives that will produce our beeswax and learn how the beeswax is prepared for candle-making. I watch Haitian candles emerge from their molds.
Beehives in Terrier Rouge that produce some of the beeswax used in Prosperity Candles
Here I have time to sit back, reflect, and engage in long conversations with stakeholders. When I’m here, the reasons we chose to launch in Haiti become crystal clear.
I know why we’re launching in Haiti, but it can be easy to forget them when buried in paperwork in Boston.
Siiri in a meeting with Elvire Eugene of AFASDA, a Prosperity Catalyst partner
Thank you to UMCOR and our Founding Catalyzers for helping us get here and launch our work. It is so important what we’re doing. By investing in women long-term as economic change agents - whose work then ripples out to impact the lives of bee-keepers, artisans, and all of their families/children - we are working to create long-lasting, Haitian-led economic development here in northern Haiti.
Team members learning how to make beeswax candles
Beeswax candles fresh out of the molds!
Hopefully by the end of this trip I will have narrowed down the pool of candidates for our Operations Manager position. I hope to have that person hired by early March and soon after recruit the first pool of women, conduct candle-making training, and then offer work readiness training. Very soon you’ll be seeing more Haitian candles, ready to reach customers just like you.
We really are creating change, one candle at a time.
~ Siiri Morley, Executive Director
