New OPODNE President Initiates Organizing in Caracol

Jean Mirvil recently was elected President of OPODNE by 100 delegates from across the Northeast District.  He formerly was the principal of a middle school in Brooklyn, planning someday to retire to his native Haiti. Then he was invited to build a school from the ground up in Caracol, which is now complete.  Mirvil is launching an OPODNE organizing project in Caracol to build self-determination among local residents and gain new economic opportunities.

Caracol is home to a large, foreign financed industrial park that manufactures garments.  It is one of the Clinton Global Initiative projects designed to provide post-earthquake help to Haiti. The impact of this development is not entirely positive. Farmers were removed from their land to build the industrial park. The town of Caracol is now facing worsened conditions including sanitation, housing and jobs.  The town used to produce organic salt, but production was stopped because of sanitation issues. After community meetings and research, residents will soon install portable toilets on the public seashore and at several homes to improve sanitary conditions so that salt can be produced that meets standards needed to profitably market it. Stay tuned to see how this story evolves.