Haiti Plunge Inc

The mission of Haiti Plunge, Inc. is to educate, challenge and empower both American and Haitian youth in social, educational and agricultural sustainable development in rural Haiti. The organization is committed to enabling young people to make a difference with their lives and be of service to others.   

Since 1984, the Haiti Plunge has been sending teams exclusively to Cabaret Region of Haiti for the purpose of building village partnerships.

The nine bush villages served by The Haiti Plunge span a 25-mile radius.  Both American and Haitian students have built the physical infrastructure, located in the village of Desab. There is now a four-building school, a clinic, a church, team residence, bakery and co-op office. Another school was built in Brely, and a new bakery in 2011 to replace one demolished by the earthquake. The bakery provides bread for thousands of people living in the higher mountain regions.  The organization has also invested in building a six-mile road connecting five of the villages to each other and to the main highway.

One of the first projects of the Haiti Plunge was to cap a mountain spring to provide clean drinking water for the people living in the area. Running water and electricity is still nonexistent in the rural mountains.     

The teams have also invested in multiple projects for erosion control including a reforestation project and the planting of vetivre grass and fruit orchards. Haiti loses 1% of its topsoil annually, as it is washed down the mountainside during the rainy seasons, and it is over 87% deforested because trees are cut down to make charcoal, a cash crop.  More than 2,000 fruit trees have now been planted around their gardens to hold the soil.  In May and June 2012 the Mango Tree initiative was started, in which 264 fruit trees were planted on property in the village of Galgal. In five years these fruit trees will provide a cash crop that will help sustain the schools.

The village of Desab has moved forward independently.  Village leaders have taken charge.  One of their first projects was to recruit an organization that provides clean water to recap the existing spring  and to provide a cement housing to protect the water supply from animals.  The Desab community also added two additional classrooms to their school.