How We Work in Haiti
Local Relationships Shape Our Work
Home Roots Foundation’s work in Haiti has been shaped by years of direct engagement with communities, schools, entrepreneurs, farmers, local leaders, and community-based organizations.
We do not believe that effective programs can be designed entirely from a distance.
We listen to communities, learn from previous interventions, identify practical opportunities, and work with local partners to develop approaches that fit the environment in which they will operate.
Our Partnership Approach
HRF is a U.S.-based organization, but our work in Haiti depends on local relationships and Haitian leadership.
Our role is to help mobilize resources, develop programs, strengthen systems, document learning, build partnerships, and support opportunities for growth.
Our Haitian partners contribute local knowledge, relationships, community trust, implementation capacity, and an understanding of what is realistic in their communities.
We believe the strongest partnerships are complementary:
International resources and connections + Haitian leadership and local knowledge = stronger community-based solutions.
Our Partnership With ODENOH
ODENOH (Development Organization for a New Haiti) is an important Haitian partner in our growing work at the intersection of environmental sustainability and livelihoods.
ODENOH is developing its work around:
Circular Communities & Waste
Conservation, Agroforestry & Climate Resilience
Green Enterprise & Sustainable Livelihoods
with women and youth as important participants and leaders.
The partnership gives HRF and ODENOH an opportunity to develop practical, community-based models in Haiti that connect environmental challenges with education, entrepreneurship, and local economic opportunity.
Examples include youth-led circular-economy initiatives in schools, green-enterprise development with women entrepreneurs, and future work connecting rural livelihoods with agroforestry, conservation, and climate resilience.
ODENOH remains a Haitian organization with its own local leadership and community relationships.
HRF’s role is to help strengthen the resources, partnerships, program development, learning, and scale opportunities surrounding locally led work.
Learning From Communities
Since 2019, HRF has actively engaged community-based groups, local officials, schools, farmers, and other stakeholders across Haiti.
These relationships have shaped our decision to concentrate programs in communities where we can build meaningful, sustained partnerships.
Our work in Sodo (Saut-d’Eau), for example, grew through relationships with churches, schools, women’s groups, farmers’ organizations, and community leaders.
Other relationships across Haiti have helped us understand different local conditions, challenges, and opportunities.
We continue to use those experiences to improve how we design and support programs.
Building Models, Not Just Projects
Our goal is to learn from individual initiatives and identify approaches that can be strengthened and adapted elsewhere.
We ask:
What worked?
Why did it work?
What did participants change?
What resources were required?
Can the approach be sustained?
Can it be adapted in another community?
That learning process is central to how HRF approaches growth.
We do not need every project to look the same. We need the lessons from each project to make the next one better.