Profile:

Location:

Chadirac is located some 2 hours north of Port-au-Prince in the Saint Marc mountain region, Department of Artibonite.  It is home to approximately 2,700 people.

Description:

Chadirac is a beautiful community sitting on the side of a mountain overlooking the coast.  As beautiful as the mountains and scenery are… it’s the people that cause visitors to fall in love with this community.  As an isolated mountain community, the people of Chadirac have been largely cut off from outside visitors and support. Community leaders are very excited about the opportunity to partner with The 410 Bridge in the journey of development.

The majority of the population is made up of subsistence farmers and The 410 Bridge was able to assist in the re-introduction of coffee into the area last year.  This has created a lot of excitement with the local farmers and since then, many have started growing coffee again. A coffee plant nursery was built in 2011 as part of the community project.

Like many communities in Haiti, the greatest need in this area is access to clean water.  Three springs have been identified, although they are a good distance from the community.  In 2012 a project will be launched, which will capture the water and pipe it into tanks within the community.  This project will provide water for consumption, as well as for a coffee washing station to process coffee cherries.

Another huge need is quality education. With very few schools in the area, currently only 10% of the children in Chadirac are enrolled.

An estimated 70% of community members are involved in a local church, yet many pastors are uneducated and most community members are not biblically literate.  The lack of educated pastors and biblical understanding result in many people claiming to “be Christian” while still appeasing the Voodoo priests and traditions.

410 Community Coordinators:

• Enaime “Tompy” Jasmin
• Ronald Formilus