EMPOWERING THE POOR: Whether it’s promoting the creation of schools or gardens, SODA is committed to empowering poor Haitians to confront and solve their problems through collective action.
Our Mission
SODA’s mission is fivefold:
- Promote the formation and strengthening of horizontally-organized, autonomous grassroots groups among Haiti’s majority poor population that seek to transform their realities through collective action.
- Support concrete actions taken by grassroots groups to encourage civic participation, to improve living conditions, to promote productive economic activities and to guarantee free education.
- Stimulate the creation of community-rooted free schools that favor alternative pedagogy whereby teachers don’t just give lessons in math and grammar but seek to create social consciousness in their students, students are protagonists not passive subjects, parents feel the school belongs to them and not to a businessman or bureaucrat, and the curriculum is rooted in Haiti’s historical, social and cultural reality.
- Seek financial and material resources to support the projects undertaken by SODA’s grassroots groups.
- Coordinate regional and nationwide campaigns by organized poor communities to build awareness among the public and to push for change in the government and among international actors.
