Welcome to the Haiti 2010, Discussion, Planning, and Resarch Wiki

The goal of this wiki is to have a central place to post research, projects, and maintain a discussion as our plan for Haiti evolves during the next few months. We want this to be an organic and democratic process, where we educate ourselves, establish contacts, and critically examine the feasibility of our initiatives.

Krik Krak has the class description and a list of resources: http://krikkrak.media.mit.edu/mas963

In discussion with Dale Joachim, we identified some goals to address during the first six weeks:

  1. Establish Context
  2. Build a Central Repository (this wiki)
  3. Create an organic structure for feedback regarding proposals
  4. Consider Longitudinal Objectives that extend beyond a class

1) Context: Areas for Research page:
-History of Haiti & foreign intervention
-Current Organizations and Efforts in Haiti (NGOs, GOs, and other people working currently)
-Cultural differences and general cultural awareness
-Foreign policies regarding trade- reasons for Haiti's existing poverty
-What existing experts have recommended to help. (like the article I sent)

2) Things to Discuss on this wiki:
-What are our goals and priorities short/long term?
-Immediate Needs to consider
-Long Term Needs to consider
-Talents & Skills in our group
-Available Assets
-Other initiatives we could contribute to

3) Discussion Area
-Everyone contributes to an awareness of the reality of situation in Haiti
-Assess honestly the effectiveness of their proposals, revise and reassess based on group feedback.
-Engagement with the group and getting feedback from people who are currently in the class.

The trip down there may not to be about deploying, it will be a chance for us to educate ourselves and evaluate the feasibility of our proposals being effectively adopted.

4) Long Term Possiblities
As a class I propose we think about a "Center for future Disaster Relief Infrastructures" which prepares people, resources, identifies areas of risk etc. - like you said a more long term initiative - where this class is an incubator. In this way, students would feel a part of something bigger, where their work could contribute to more longitudinal effort.