Molly Case on SOIL in Haiti

Molly Case, deputy development director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), gave a log lunch talk on this NGO’s work in Haiti tackling the sanitation crisis triggered by the 2010 earthquake. The worst cholera outbreak in recent history bolstered a need for better sanitation–few have flush toilets, if any toilet at all. Most dump their excrement in a ravine or just onto the street.

“Open defecation is something you just have to do, in Haiti,” said Molly.

Molly Case, Deputy Development Director of SOIL

Since 2006, SOIL has been able to promote dignity, health, and sustainable livelihoods to Haitians by transforming wastes into resources–compost, that is. Using social business models around ecological sanitation (EcoSan), a process in which nutrients from human wastes return to the soil rather than polluting fresh water resources, SOIL allows Haitians to be self-sufficient in taking care of this basic human need, which most of us in developed countries take for granted.

–Jane Tekin, ’19