Sustainable change for people in Pakistan and Haiti

Excellent rubbish figures in Pakistan

• 42,822 people from 24,000 households were reached directly with vital messaging about the dangerous impact of poor waste management on people’s health, marine life and climate change. Many more people were reached indirectly with this information through community activities.
• 181,800 (30,300 households) are benefiting from the Haryali Hubs each month – making a significant difference in the community!
• 433.68 tonnes of organic and inorganic material were saved from going to dumping sites and polluting the environment.
• 114.4 tonnes of plastics were prevented from going to the dumping site or ending up in rivers and streams. (This included 77.6 tonnes of plastic bags!)
• 76 jobs for local community members have been created at Haryali Hubs.
• Eight waste collection vehicles have had chambers installed for the first time to collect segregated waste.
• The local government has agreed to take over the Haryali Hubs after the project period ends and keep them running, meaning the change is truly sustainable.

Toward sustainable change in Haiti

Tearfund’s local partners used the remaining million pounds of UK Aid Match funding in Haiti.

Haiti has suffered from extremely challenging political and security issues over recent years, and reports of gang violence and political instability have hit headlines over the past few weeks. But, there are also long term development issues in Haiti which impact people’s lives and wellbeing. One of these issues is proper waste management and the project funded by UK Aid Match aimed to make life safer, cleaner and healthier for people living in Carrefour.

The location, on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince, was chosen because of the particularly high needs of the community, and also for its location on the banks of the Riviere Froide where a lot of waste gets dumped and carried out into the Caribbean sea.

The project’s goal, over three years, was to move Carrefour toward becoming a model sustainable green community and set an example for the whole of Haiti by:

• reducing open burning and dumping of waste (and thereby reducing the negative health impacts);
• changing waste management attitudes and behaviours in the community to make the improvements long-lasting;
• and providing a waste collection service to make life healthier and safer for people and the environment.

Excellent results 

Working together with local partners, Arris-Desrosiers (a local youth-led social enterprise specialising in solid waste collection and recycling) and World Relief Haiti (WR), Tearfund achieved excellent results in spite of the severe security and socio-economic challenges in the wake of the President’s assassination in July 2021.

Challenges, a pandemic… and successful change

Although the project faced various challenges over the three years – including a global pandemic – by the end of it, around 11,051 people successfully changed the way they store and dispose of their waste.

With 1,127 households in the community actively enrolled in the waste collection service, there has been a positive shift in understanding and attitudes.

The young people at Arris-Derosiers have now developed a long-term business plan to maintain and grow the economic opportunities created through the project, and to continue to collect waste.

Creating eco-ambassadors for the future

Training was run in 34 local schools to help students understand the risks of poor waste management (and how these risks can be avoided), and lots of changes have been made to the waste management practices and policies in their schools as a result. These changes have even been recognised by the Mayor of Carrefour! The learning materials created for this part of the project have also been shared with other organisations across Haiti and further afield.

Some of the students reached through this work have gone on to become advocates for eco-responsible behaviours – spreading the message further and helping to make the environment safer and cleaner for even more people in Haiti.

Students ending the vicious cycle of damage

Ader Joseph, 17, is one of these students. He says, ‘Before I received this training, I did not give [waste management] any importance, and I did not know about the amount of damage and disaster plastic waste could cause to my neighbourhood.

‘I have learnt that when we do not recycle plastic waste, we enter into a vicious and harmful cycle of damage. When we burn it, it pollutes the air, when we breathe this air it causes disease; when we throw waste into rivers or ravines, it goes into the sea, and is eaten by the fish that we will eat – and that can also damage our health.

‘I have learnt all of this thanks to Tearfund. Now, I want to share all the information with other people. Today, I see myself as a responsible person who has knowledge.’

Ader, Kaneez and all of us at Tearfund are grateful for the work that the UK Aid Match funding has made possible which has already made a difference to thousands of people in Pakistan and Haiti and will continue to do so.