The deeper meaning behind road building initiatives in rural Haiti
Plant With Purpose focuses its efforts on rural communities. This is because rural communities are at the crossroads of poverty and climate change, but also because they have tremendous potential to drive change. These communities often face significant challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. By working directly with rural populations, Plant With Purpose can address these issues at their root, empowering individuals and families to build sustainable livelihoods and restore their natural environment.
Plant With Purpose employs a rigorous process that considers various factors to identify communities in need. Areas with high poverty levels, deforestation, and soil erosion are given priority. Additionally, we assess the community's readiness to participate in sustainable development initiatives and relationship networks. Upon selecting communities, every Plant With Purpose office ensures that locals are at the front of driving long-lasting transformation.
When we begin assessing potential partnerships with communities, we start with a Community Readiness Assessment, that includes dialogue with members of the community. One of the most common questions we receive is whether we can assist in building roads. This is often mentioned whenever we ask about a community’s biggest needs.
In countries like Haiti and the Dominican Republic, roads are more than just infrastructure; they are lifelines for rural communities. Without adequate roads, a farmer cannot take their harvest to market to sell. A child cannot get to school. A mother cannot get kids to the doctor. Poor road conditions can isolate villages, hindering economic development and limiting opportunities for residents. These communities often rely on agriculture, but the lack of transportation infrastructure makes transporting goods to urban centers difficult, leading to lower incomes and food insecurity.
Furthermore, well-maintained roads are crucial for delivering aid and evacuating affected populations during emergencies like hurricanes or earthquakes. The absence of proper roads can exacerbate the impact of disasters, making it harder to reach those in need. Investing in rural road infrastructure is essential for improving the quality of life for small-scale farmers, reducing poverty, and building resilience to natural disasters.
It's easy to take infrastructure like roads for granted. While we usually refocus the conversation towards the core of our work—environmental activities, savings, and spiritual renewal, we also note that our partnership can equip the community with the ability to organize and build roads themselves. This idea is often met with some disbelief, but at the same time, it plants a seed of hope and possibility.
Across Plant With Purpose, Purpose Groups are groups for local development. They are community-based networks that do not depend on a government or even the constant management of a development organization to make improvements. Recently, our team in Haiti provided a strong example of how Purpose Groups empower communities to address challenges, even when those challenges sit outside the immediate pillars of our mission.
In Haiti, eight savings groups in the final phase of their partnership did the "unthinkable" for their community—through organizing, mobilizing, and gathering their resources, they agreed to cooperatively fund and construct a road that will benefit everyone. Over the past two years, they saved nearly $6,000 USD to purchase materials like cement and gravel, and together they are grading and paving the road through a united community effort.
This all began with a community-led initiative facilitated by the Purpose Group methodology. Most Purpose Groups in this area of Haiti have 25 members, but this group decided to set aside extra funds as though they were saving for a 26th member. They agreed to put these funds towards community projects and shared needs. Through this mechanism, savings groups meet to discuss local challenges, decide how to address them, and collectively save and mobilize toward their goals.
The outcome? A brand new road.
The construction of this road is significant because it marks the transformation of these Purpose Groups towards maturity and graduation. Ultimately, they will transition from being aid recipients to active contributors in their community’s development. Such achievements demonstrate their growing sense of ownership and agency, ability to organize and invest in long-term projects, and dedication to serving others (to extend and spend themselves). Roads, as critical infrastructure, symbolize these groups' broader commitment to their community’s growth and well-being.
Their willingness to invest in such a project underscores not only their understanding of the essential role roads play but also their recognition of the power they hold to shape—and pave—their own future.
We celebrate these achievements as further motivation for Plant With Purpose and our work, and as a testament to the strength and resilience of Haitian communities. They are the protagonists of their own development.
