2011

Establish Physical Presence on La Gonave

• Secure a modest sized guest house on the island which will serve as home base for visiting work teams and function as staging grounds for island project efforts.
• Equip and furnish guest house with furniture, supplies, and equipment (i.e. generator, refrigerator, water purification system, etc.).
• Secure a storage facility where shipped project supplies will be stored and inventoried.
• Hire a security guard for the property.
• Movement
  
  • Secure the heavy-duty, high-capacity vehicles that will provide for transportation of work teams and supplies across rugged island terrain...
    
    • 2 - High Capacity, Heavy Suspension Trucks (e.g. 3/4 ton diesel truck)
    • 2 - 125cc Motorcycles.
    • 2 - 4-wheel, heavy duty ATVʼs (e.g. John Deere Gator, Polaris Ranger, etc.).
  • Assemble caravan supplies and equipment (tents, cots, portable generator, etc.).

Program Implementation

• Develop 3-5 strategic partnerships with existing NGOʼs in Haiti that will leverage Starfysh resources and capabilities on La Gonave.
• Apply for NGO (Non-Government Organization) status in Haiti.
• Develop and implement a micro-enterprise economic development program modeled off of other well-established and successful models.
• Develop and implement a program of community development which will give local ownership and oversight of project initiatives. The equipping and empowering of local village leaders through education and leadership development will provide each village with dignity of ownership and will ensure a long-lasting impact of the project initiatives implemented there.
• Identify one village community where we will establish the economic and community development models as the context and methods upon which we will implement the following program initiatives...
  
  • Clean Water. Provide point-of-use bio-sand water filtration systems in every village home.
  • Latrines. Make sure each village family has a good, working, routinely-used latrine.
  • Economic Development. Establish 12-24 micro-loan businesses in the village.
  • Teacher Education. Finalize teacher education curriculum. Develop Creole-language resources. Develop relationships with village school teachers/leaders. Begin live (kids in school) teacher training workshops for pre-K to 6th grade levels (Fall, 2011). Particular emphasis on the teaching of reading.
  • Trees and Agriculture. Bring strategically-selected trees, garden seeds, and animals to the village, distributing them according to individual family needs and land resources as well as total community needs and impact.

• Compassion and Relief.
  
  • Build a database of individuals who could be called upon to travel to La Gonave in the event of natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, flooding, disease, etc.).
  • Gather and house at our staging facility the disaster response equipment and supplies (e.g. tents, medical supplies, etc.) that could be moved immediately to anywhere on the island.
  • Establish a $50,000 escrow fund, set aside for immediate access in the event of large-scale, catastrophic need on the island.

• Health.
  
  • Collaborate with island community leaders and other organizations in developing a vision and plan for island community health (prevention, education, mobile clinics) to be implemented in 2012.
  • Create mobile medical clinic.

• Education.
  
  • In collaboration with island community leaders and other organizations, develop a vision and strategic plan for education on La Gonave (primary, secondary, college, trades), taking into consideration community-based education models.
  • Begin immediately to integrate education into every project effort.

• Bring the first Starfysh Vision Teams to the island.
• Develop village census materials as well as pre- and post-program assessment tools. Create and implement a plan for gathering comprehensive census information for the entire island.

Starfysh Internal Organizational Development

• Develop informational / promotional materials (print, video, web formats)
  
  • Create/produce a video documentary of La Gonave (history of island, current conditions (ecologic, infrastructure, living conditions, needs, etc.).

• Develop and grow a database of donors, partner organizations, and those simply interested in the vision and activities of Starfysh.
• Develop communications plan:
  
  • Web Presence. Mature our site: expanded content, appearance, ease of navigation, interactivity, frequent updates, etc.
  • Social Media. Exploit the power of the various forms of social media, especially for what it can do in times of urgent needs and disaster response.
  • Mail/Email.
  • Establish formal offices in both the United States and on the island of La Gonave.

• Secure a Stateside warehouse for container staging.
• Hire a programmatic support staff member to oversee and advance the work on the ground in Haiti.
• Begin grant application process:
  
  • Seed / Start-up grants
  • Operational Cost grants
  • Project grants

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