Youth work opportunity to transform lives in Haiti

For many young people the idea of getting work that makes a positive difference in the world seems like a pipe dream when they consider the high rate of youth unemployment and the dearth of project money for community development, or for that matter just plain jobs.

That is why, says Lloyd Dalziel, President of the international development organization ISCA, the opportunity being offered by his organization to young people to work in Haiti on a sustainable agriculture project is so exciting.

This fall, ISCA (International Sustainable Community Assistance) is offering an opportunity for two Atlantic Canadian youths to work in Haiti for six months.

The Charlottetown-based non-profit organization is currently accepting applications from Canadian citizens under the age of 30 to learn about and support the development of a sustainable poultry project in the Terrier Rouge region of Haiti.

In 2013 the development organization introduced a unique small scale poultry project in the Zoranger region northeast of Port au Prince that has caught the attention of many Haitian communities and international development organizations.

“The success of the model lies not only in the appropriate infrastructure size and design, it also comes from the initial training of participants in areas such as marketing, small business management, the cooperative model, and of course poultry production management. What is most encouraging is that the Haitian farmers now see themselves as business people, managing a poultry operation as a professional business enterprise,” said Dalziel, the group’s president and project lead.

He added that nothing breeds success like success and that it has been very encouraging for ISCA to find, in a recent followup visit to Zoranger, that 5 out of the 6 poultry farmers are operating successfully without any additional aid from his organization.

In a recent presentation to an NGO focused on providing charitable support to destitute families in a variety of sites around the world Dalziel stated that the work and approach of ISCA represents the cutting edge of international development in a post CEDA (Cdn Economic Development Agency) world.

In the past the Canadian government spent millions of dollars on large industrial agriculture solutions in underdeveloped countries as a way of lifting communities out of poverty.

He says that smaller more locally focused sustainable agriculture using technology and training that fits the local context is now being seen as the way forward in international development, especially in the agriculture sector.

More information about ISCA’s work can be found at www.isca-aidc.ca.

Applications for the internships can be accessed at www.acic-caci.org/internships/