What is the name of your solution?
FRAPE
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
FRAPE is a sustainable community-led clean water access management methodology that results in social change and development in Haiti.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Pignon, HaitiWhat type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
As one of the least-resourced countries in the world, Haiti, with a population of 12 million, faces crippling effects of poverty, undrinkable water, high infant mortality, lack of medical care, and high unemployment. While well intended, solutions have largely been delivered as one time relief projects, leaving the critical components of management, leadership, and sustainability practices ignored. Leaving a systemic failure of infrastructure and 42% of Haitians without access to clean water.
We aim for transformative change, through FRAPE, with water as the catalyst.
What is your solution?
Our solution capitalizes on the Haitian word “FRAPE”. FRAPE is Creole for “Banging on all Cylinders”, in other words, full steam ahead! We believe in the power of this word and have created an acronym for our work with water. FRAPE encompasses the entire clean water journey, resulting in the total empowerment of Haitians to be in charge of their own destiny, without outside influences.
F: Functional. We work with our Haitian staff to identify, install, and implement functional wells and well systems.
R: Responsibly Managed: Using our Unique to Haiti curriculum and coaching model, Haitian community members, leaders, and elected officials learn how to manage their wells and troubleshoot problems as they arise. This most critical component to the work also includes MWater, a technology that we first brought to Haiti.
A: Sanitation Coverage: Clean water does not exist without proper sanitation. We provide access to latrines and best practices in order to ensure sustainable systems.
P: Potable: Our team remains committed to clean, potable water and sanitation. This is accomplished through our management and coaching curriculum.
E: Inspected: A key component to the long term success of our model is regular inspection and data collection. This is recorded using our MWater technology.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our FRAPE methodology with accompanying tech and unique curriculum currently serves rural Haiti but will be scaled to serve all of Haiti. Currently no other NGO is addressing leadership barriers that are keeping Haiti stuck while also addressing the critical issue of access to clean water. By coaching local leaders about sustainable access to clean water as a catalyst for social change, we have seen dramatic improvement economically and health-wise in the communities that have adopted FRAPE.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
In the 27 years we have been in Haiti, we have been learning from and working with Haitians. We have earned a reputation for integrity and in working with our team we are capable and ready to provide water to all, and bring about transformational change in the process.
Co Founder and Engineer Neil Van Dine is respected internationally for his expertise and his leadership. With our Haitian Headquarters in Pignon, our international partners, and the trust of Haitian residents and leaders, we have the ability to scale our model in such a way that we will be able to ensure clean water to all of Haiti.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Generate new economic opportunities and buffer against economic shocks for workers, including good job creation, workforce development, and inclusive and attainable asset ownership.Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
GrowthWhy are you applying to Solve?
We are seeking SOLVEs partnership in expanding our curriculum, expanding our model throughout Haiti, and assistance in Haitian led training. We are are on the cusp of transforming lives in this great country, and we believe very strongly that SOLVE can be an integral part of this work.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Ceallaigh Smart
What makes your solution innovative?
One time relief funding and non-sustainable aid projects are the norm here in Haiti and have done incredible harm to the social fabric and culture and has kept Haiti stuck in an unsustainable cycle of need. Our coaching programs are the only ones in Haiti that are addressing the social barriers that are keeping Haiti stuck in a way that fosters transformational change and opens up a new way for all of us Haitians to be the leaders we have always needed. Our unique position, expertise, and trust within communities has laid the groundwork for this life-changing work to see true sustainable impact. We are looking to scale our leadership coaching work so more Haitians can effectively make the change they want to see at the community, commune, and national levels. Our distinctive approach was created by Haitians for Haitians. It starts with water, and leads to independence.
FRAPE along with our Leadership Sustainable Development coaching curriculum was developed by our Haitian staff and created from decades of coaching local communities is focused on responsibility, accountability, and dismantling sociological barriers. It coaches leaders to adopt a philosophical change in their approach from relief to sustainable development and integrates the principles of integrity, consistency, transparency, and data-driven decision making. Transforming leaders' mindsets to see the value in taking responsibility is essential to generating the ownership necessary for community-driven change. We have now started coaching local municipal and national leaders with this curriculum and are seeing excellent results. Scaling our work to reach each one of the 144 communes in Haiti as well as bringing our program to the public school system is within reach. We have found a pathway forward to developing Haiti. It starts with access to clean water, but it is much bigger.
The coaching model integrates the principles of integrity, consistency, transparency, data-driven decision making, and responsibility. It helps leaders adopt a philosophical change in their approach from relief to sustainable development. Developed by our Haitian staff, it sets local and national authorities up for success in moving the country towards development. Transforming mindsets to take responsibility is essential to generating the ownership and critical thinking necessary for continuous delivery of WASH services and beyond.
Put simply, the FRAPE model has proven to ripple out and transform other areas of development and infrastructure across Haiti. It provides a knowledge base residents on how to connect with staff, it empowers residents on how to troubleshoot, and it provides peace of mind and independence for broad based impact.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
FRAPE empowers local communities, and national and local authorities with a unique to Haiti approach.
Before the emergence of FRAPE, Haiti Outreach began 27 years ago by first drilling boreholes and providing pumps to rural Haitian communities who were getting sick from the local water sources. But like the rest of the under-resourced world, we quickly realized that the success rate of pumps is 50% after only a very short time. We knew there had to be a better way. It wasn’t a pump or pipe problem but a management problem. So, in 2004, we implemented our Community Well Installation Coaching Program. By coaching each community that comes to us for support, to follow a 3-6 month coaching program and sustainable pay-for-service model with a transparent bank account, this ensures that when the well breaks or is contaminated, it is able to be repaired by the community themselves and not outside relief agencies.
Since this program started twenty years ago, we have made groundbreaking progress in terms of providing clean water for Haitians across rural Haiti. We are providing basic clean water access (potable water within 500 meters of their homes) for over 500 communities and 265,000 individuals daily. Ninety-four percent of the wells we installed and are managed by the community themselves, are still working. This proven success is better than almost all other WASH-focused NGOs in the world.
Despite our success we recognized that if we continued to just drill wells for the next 27 years, Haiti would still not be a developed country. To truly see Haiti become a developed nation in our lifetime, we needed to make a shift. Our team in Haiti has shifted to create the FRAPE model, now also coaching Haitian Leaders about sustainable access to clean water as a catalyst for social change. Using the unique leadership development curriculum created from decades of coaching communities focused on responsibility and accountability and dismantling the barriers that are keeping Haiti stuck, we have now started coaching local municipal and national leaders. We are changing the conversation around development and water and seeing lives transformed through large water infrastructure projects and beyond. Scaling our work to reach each one of the 144 communes in Haiti as well as bringing our program to the public school system is within reach. We know water. We know leadership. Haiti needs both.
FRAPE is being implemented successfully in Pignon, Cavaillon, Ferrier, Terre Neuve. Our impact is broadening, independence is within reach.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
We measure impact through the Unique to Haiti technology MWater. This technology is a tracking model that assesses areas of opportunity in Haitian communities according to population, water source, and sanitation capabilities.
Once the commune has been identified in collaboration with Northwater, and the pumps and pump house is installed, the system tracks each well, designating it functioning, failing, or in failure. We measure our wells with consistency utilizing our staff, commune leaders, and Haitian residents, all who have gone through the FRAPE six year coaching curriculum and program.
Haiti Outreach staff monitors the data and assists in addressing issues with each commune. The result of this all encompassing system is 90% functionality of systems that have gone through the FRAPE model.
But much more than clean water, these communities are experiencing the benefits and independence that comes with this newfound knowledge and personal accountability. The trickle down effect of the FRAPE model is working its way into the social fabric of these communities.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Unlike other countries in the world, Haiti faces challenges that are unquantifiable. Sanitation challenges, poverty, and access to water are part of everyday life for most Haitians.
Our tracking technology, while only one part of our management system, is easy to understand, simple to access, with precision that has never been experienced before. While we are in the process of putting the work to print, FRAPE has to this point been led by our Haitian staff teaching the model in their native language, Kreyol. We lean into this knowledge system, knowing through years of our work in Haiti that the best results come from Haitians themselves.
Sanitation and water go hand in hand. When we enter a community we first address sanitation. And when we successfully implement FRAPE into a community, residents feel the sense of pride that comes with clean water and sanitation.
Over the near three decades of our steadfast commitment to Haiti, we have taken the long approach. We have learned through our experience with Haitians, the Haitian culture, and the unique barriers that Haitians oftentimes face, that trust and respect are paramount to our success. We intend to continue to improve our technology at a pace that is Haitian led. We have learned that working WITH Haitians and promoting Haitian leadership through partnership is the secret sauce to our continued progress in this beautiful country.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
How many people work on your solution team?
Roge Michel, Pignon, Haiti: 509 33 20 7449 (whats app)
Neil Van Dine, Pignon, Haiti: 612-656-9295
Dale Snyder, US: 612-598-6024
Ceallaigh Smart, US: 612-865-5031
How long have you been working on your solution?
While we have been operating in Haiti for over 27 years, providing clean water to over 265,000 individuals daily, the FRAPE model and curriculum has emerged in the past ten years.
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
We currently employ 13 Haitian staff members who teach the FRAPE model across Haiti. We have four Caucasian staff that operate primarily out of our US office.
Our board is comprised of seven members of color and four members who are white.
What is your business model?
With individual residents as the key consumers, FRAPE with the six year coaching curriculum follows the clean water journey from identification to management. Much more than one time relief, our model builds relationships, creates trust, improves economic conditions, and continues to expand.
Living and working in Haiti for near three decades has uniquely positioned us to do this work with integrity, specificity, and measurable success.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
Our MWater technology provides the data to measure success of systems. FRAPE is the model that trains and coaches leaders on how to manage and lead their communities. It may sound simple, but it simply is not. We place relationship and integrity above all other things.
While grant funding has been nominal, we receive most of our funds from loyal individual donors and foundations who have follow our work since day one.
Solution Team
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Our Organization
Haiti Outreach