Konbit Pou Ayiti

KONPAY was founded in November 2004 in Jacmel, Haiti by Melinda Miles, former co-director of the Quixote Center, and Haitian-American Joe Duplan. Miles and Duplan decided to move to Haiti when many were fleeing during the unrest following the coup d'etat of February 29, 2004, because they felt they could be more effective as partners in solidarity if they were on the ground in Haiti. With a grant from the Public Welfare Foundation, KONPAY began distributing emergency assistance to human rights, especially women's organizations, and established safe houses in Port-au-Prince.

KONPAY offered major financial support to the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), a group working with rape victims in the capital’s notorious slum areas. KONPAY also began supporting a primary school for at-risk and extremely poor children in Port-au-Prince’s Martissant neighborhood. KONPAY’s sponsorship of the KOFAVIV project ended in 2006 when leaders of the project joined with Anne Sosin to create Haiti Rights Vision/VIDWA. KONPAY continued to support the Martissant school until the end of the 2005-2006 school year with periodic grants to pay teachers’ salaries.

KONPAY partnered with the Collective for the Artists of Jacmel, which promotes the artisanry of this world renowned city, the capitol of Carnival. In the U.S. we promoted and sold artesana, produced a cultural education tour of CFAJ artists in New England schools and represented CFAJ at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in 2007. CFAJ ran a program for thirty disadvantaged school children, teaching them embroidery, papier-mache, crochet, painting, drawing and other artisana. They also collaborated on marketing and sales efforts, including holding exhibitions at Carnival in February, and during the May 1st and December festivities.

KONPAY has focused the majority of its time and resources on coalition-building and direct assistance projects for the environment. In September 2005, KONPAY brought together forty grassroots and organizational leaders to determine an agenda for the environment. After participating in Alternative Gifts International's gathering of international agencies working to reforest Haiti, KONPAY began planning the National Environment Initiative, a landmark event which gathered grassroots leaders, national non-governmental organizations and international agencies to share information and build relationships in Jacmel. In 2007, as a result of the meeting, the Haitian National Coalition for the Environment was launched with KONPAY as coordinator. Please learn more about the Coalition by visiting www.haitienvironment.org.

On January 12, 2010, our lives changed forever. The world come to a stop
when an earthquake shook Haiti to its knees. With many other
non-governmental organizations working in the country, the Haiti
Response Coalition was formed to respond to what was not being provided by the inter/national disaster relief and recovery mechanism: the distribution water, food, medical
aid, and shelter; a place marker in meetings with
the United Nations, USAID, World Food Program, and others; and planning and collaboration on building a new country as
articulated by Haitian communities. KONPAY continues to support advocacy and aid distribution to communities in and around Port-au-Prince and Jacmel. Please visit our main blog page for a history of our work

To contact us, please e-mail Elise Hansen at elise@konpay.org.