20100510
I am working on a humanitarian initiative for Haiti. It is about transferring growing skills - GYO or Grow Your Own - and greenhouse DIY or Do It Youself construction skills that enable local, sustainable food production that is organic and highly nutritive.
I am supported in this project by Marc Laberge who has the growing skills with combined production of fish and fresh vegetables. Additionally, another partner, Dr Ben Hindley, owner of Hinben is working with IIMSAM to integrate an algae culture system with our Sola Roof greenhouse.
As the inventor of Sola Roof, I encourage a non-commercial community of Sola Roof developers and users, including individuals, families, and communities to build projects to "grow your own". When people who are prosperous use Sola Roof DIY kits to grow their own, I ask this community of users to "Pay It Forward" to help others. This community of DIYers in the "north" and "west" (or the developed, industrial world as people say) are ethically required to assist the poor in the "south" or underdeveloped world. The goal is to collectively establish a humanitarian, non-commercial initiative that would have the purpose of bringing sustainable, self-reliant food & energy production to communities that are recovering from disaster and have nothing. I propose to establish the first of these projects in Haiti.
This personal use of Sola Roof is distinct from the commercial users, which are businesses that supply through the current food "chain of supply" the majority urbanized populations. This is the pattern of consumerism that has firm hold on the people of the northern hemisphere but is not well established in the south. I refer an article on the importance of the rural farmer and the local and informal food supply serving the vast majority of people who live in the South, tittled, "Who will Feed Us".
So, the movement that I would hope to inspire within the Sola Roof community is a DIY community of users who, though they have Open Source access to Sola Roof and other technology related technology, will together contribute to support poor families and communities, who would not otherwise have the means to gain the advantage of a Sola Roof greenhouse - but who actually have the greatest of need and most urgent situation. Other donors are invited to join the Sola Roof community to enable poor, marginalized and homeless to purchase the DIY kits (supplied without profit by our supply chain) and build their own community based, social enterprise projects and thereby to grow their own food, sustainably for the long term. These projects are resistant to hurricane, earthquake and are not affected by climate change.
I feel that NGOs and institutions have failed to deliver innovation and I have much more confidence in individuals and families to help others. I have faith that people with the skill and know-how to live self reliantly and who have been helped with free Open Source technology will Pay It Forward to help others. This is the core of what I envision will be financial support to our Humanitarian Program. Then, additionally, I am asking the companies that are in the supply chain of the DIY kits to pay some of their profit (perhaps 10%) to the Pay It Forward projects. They can do this by way of supplying money or to contribute without profit the material and components that they supply to our DIY community to the Humanitarian Projects.
Now, when the general population see what the Sola Roof community is doing, then they will be inspired to donate and businesses could also be donors, whether or not they are members of our DIY supply chain. The commercial Sola Roof network (which includes my companies) will also contribute to the Sola Roof Humanitarian Program. I would like to establish a Sola Roof Foundation at some point, but for the present the practical approach that I am suggesting is that Sola Roof can seek a Non-Profit organization to handle the funds that would come from our community and others and flow to the Pay It Forward projects - the first of which would be in Haiti.
If your organization, could be a partner for the Sola Roof initiative then please consider joining the team; In relation to the kick-off project, my intention is to propose an initiative in Haiti. Sola Roof has the innovative approach to support the Clinton vision: "to build back better". - Sola Roof Guy