Intersession course in Haiti that is happening this January.   It is a great opportunity to get some hands on engineering experience and to develop a connection with SOIL for future projects.  The application was technically due a week ago but IEEP has kindly extended the deadline through Nov 14. The application can be found at the following http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/1,1770,6371-1;56929-3,00.html .

During their stay students will participate in the following activities:

• Visits to several of SOIL’s ecological sanitation sites, a rural technology center and a new municipal composting site in Milot. While in Milot students will also have a chance to visit the historic monuments of the Palace of San Souci and the Citadel. 
• Visit to the Village of Labadi where SOIL has constructed 4 large public ecological toilets.  Labadi is also the site where Royal Caribbean Cruiselines has a private beach, the largest site for tourist activity in the country.  This visit will allow students to evaluate the effects of tourism from both environmental and social perspectives.
• A visit to Shada, an overcrowded urban slum in Cap Haitien where SOIL has worked closely with a youth group to build 3 public toilets (one with UM Intersession students in January 2008) and launch several empowerment projects, including a garbage transformation contest and a photo project. SOIL is currently doing a collaborative pilot project with Oxfam to develop and test household ecological sanitation systems.   Shada is an example of many of the special challenges of urban development and will provide a valuable insight into the differences between rural and urban development.  While in Shada we will meet with several local grassroots NGO’s to get a better sense of community identified priorities.
• Interactions with local government officials, including meetings with the mayors of Milot, Borgne and Cap Haitien.  We will discuss both the positive and negative roles that international organizations have played with regards to local governments.
• Construction of a community ecological sanitation system.  Students will have a chance to help with both project implementation and community outreach. 
• Participation  in the Looking through Their Eyes photo empowerment project (a project where youth use digital cameras to show what they like and don’t like about their communities) and the Fatra pa Egziste contest (a contest where kids are asked to take something someone else threw away and transform it into something beautiful or useful) with youth from the community in which we build the toilet.
• Daily group meetings, to discuss the previous day’s work and to reflect on ways to enhance the sustainability of the project, with special attention given to project maintenance.

The class is designed for undergraduates and graduates from any discipline interested in bringing their academic training to bear on issues of human suffering and environmental destruction.  The goal of the class is to recruit a broad range of students to bring a variety of disciplinary perspectives to the table.  Fluency in French or Kreyol is useful, but not required, to participate in the intersession course.