Philosophy APF

          In this, we need to look at what motivates us to do the type and the quality of work that we are doing. What is in the back of our minds and the spirit that animates us at APF and as a peasant association that works in rural Haiti? What motivates us to work in this type of organization?

          One of the first things is the spirit of working together. To organize ourselves to struggle against the evil forces in all their forms. For example, to help the poor peasants get back their human dignity and their rights as citizens in their own country. We are talking about people who do not have access to some of the basic necessities for a decent life, such as water and health care. We are talking about young adults who have to leave their home to go to the cities in order to get access to some basic opportunities. They must find a way to fight against hunger and misery. These are the reasons why we organize ourselves, to put our resources together, to identify our problems and to solve them.

          Secondly, we want to help the peasants of Fondwa build their confidence in themselves and in others and to help them realize that they too are human beings and created in God’s likeness like everyone else. God created people in his image, and they must live like people. The only way they can find the strength to do so is in their capacity to organize themselves as one body. Working together demands that they respect each other, trust each other, learn how to cooperate and create an environment where everyone is equal. It is true that prejudice and discrimination exist among them, and they need to eliminate these ideas. They have to break the barriers that divide them, like gender, social rank, age, religion and political ideas so that they can accept each other and work together. That is also the way that they will be able to integrate each person who wants to participate in the best way that they can. We welcome the presence of our members and visitors/participants from all over the world who come to work with us. All of this help us to build our Philosophy and to create our vision of our rural community.

          The way that we gather all of these forces together is to bring everyone who wants to work with us together so that we can advance together and release ourselves from our bondages. But at the same time, we realize that once we know what we want, we are already half way there! Half way to achieving our goals and objectives, to completing our journey. Nobody can give us chicken droppings instead of eggs, they cannot give us juice from a manioc instead of milk. That is to say, we know what is good for us and we know how to get it, even though it will take us time to get it. It is a long fight for human rights.

          We think through the accomplishments of APF and with the solidarity of all of the people from all over the world (international visitors, volunteers and our local people), we are demonstrating the spirit of APF, our vision and our philosophy. When we first started in 1988, we did not have our own space to schedule our meetings. We met at friends' places wherever we could find a space. Not everyone wanted to participate at the beginning because it was too risky and uncomfortable. Some people want to have everything before starting to do something great and good, and for us it was more important to start with what we have and what we can get. We came together and decided to learn from each other, from those who have more experience than us and from other organizations. An example of this spirit can be found in the school that we opened. This is a school that was made up of five different small schools in the area. We opened it in open air. Now, we do have a very nice school building after 10 years of working together. When we put our resources together and stand ready to learn from each other, we can create something great for the benefit of our rural Community. That allows us to say, among us, there are no outsiders. In the Fondwa Community, there is no distinction between people who are from Fondwa and those who are not.

          It is true that our work started with people from Fondwa and in a Catholic church, but our accomplishments were achieved with people from everywhere and from different religions -- people who respect us and who want to collaborate with us. They are helping us to stabilize this institution and grow like someone who has accepted transformation of his/her mind when it is necessary in order to advance.

          When we started we did not have a university, a primary and secondary school, nor a clinic. Now we have all of these projects, and we help many young adults go study in other countries. When they return to work with us that gives us a lot of strength and courage to continue our struggle.

          Through the university we are able to share our resources with other people and the other 564 rural communities in Haiti. APF is a tool that brings hope and encouragement for people living in rural Haiti. We work within the boundaries of Fondwa but it is an inspiration to peasants all over the country. It is a sign of encouragement for all organizations who struggle, who come together to change life and to combat misery where they live and everywhere they go.