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To amplify the voices of the vulnerable, the marginalized and the excluded. |
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Chemical pesticides are widely used to combat the insect pests that raid fields and destroy vegetables. However, safe organic means are available. Before Steve Carter became a farmer in Barbados, he was an engineer. Through the internet, he researched how to use the biological control of pests as an alternative to expensive poisonous agrochemicals. This became a growing business and he named his firm @Organic Farming Solutions@.
Many farmers seem to believe that certain chemicals and fertilizers no longer work after certain time. Others honestly think that the make-up of chemicals changes. However, the reason for the ineffectiveness of certain chemicals is that insects become immune to them. Therefore alternatives need to be sought. Organic products have been provided by nature to help us protect our crops and research has shown that certain things like garlic or neem will not be attacked by insects.
Prompted by a neighbour who was looking for a product to keep birds away from his crops, Steve Carter did research through the internet. He came across a product called Agarlic barrier@, which was reported to have protected some crops from birds and other pests, based on the taste and smell that it gives to crops. Also regarding insect and other pests, tests had provided good results. Therefore Steve Carter imported some, and he had very good results with it. Read more ...
For the first fifteen years after the first cases of AIDS were recorded in Haiti, women involved in commercial sex have shown themselves indifferent towards the repercussions of the epidemic. With time progressing and the spread of the virus causing HIV/AIDS accelerating, prostitutes now feel more and more concerned.
Caution danger!
“I could not believe for a moment that AIDS really exists, up to the day that one of my friends was hit by the scourge of the century,” Katia Juste said, who considers herself a nomad and now lives in Gonaives, the main city of the Department of Artibonite located 171 kilometers North of Port-au-Prince.
Katia, who accepted to talk frankly, is 23 years old. She is already mother of two children without knowledge of the father’s whereabouts. “Already when I was 17, I had affairs with many men simultaneously,” she confided laughing. From one hotel to another, she traveled to all the big cities of Haiti in those years, always looking for the best affairs.
Read more ...From 2 – 12 November 2000, in four localities of the South East of Haiti, the Association for National Solidarity (ASON) organized an awareness and motivation campaign on AIDS. This campaign, which was funded by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), aimed to contribute to the reduction of the rate of infection by HIV and to break the social barriers and discrimination towards seropositive people.
This “crusade” had its first stop on 3 November 2000 at the “Emile Posy” school and on the “Cojurelle” beach of Marigot.
“How to live with AIDS; AIDS, a threat to society; What does the future hold for an HIV-positive person?” were the themes of the debate which took place during five hours between members of ASON and an audience estimated at more than 300 people.
The audience at Marigot, located at 24 kilometers from Jacmel, composed of youth and adults, took the floor many times, and asked questions on the modes of transmitting HIV. Read more ...