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Support Open Space Institute of Haiti

Dear Friends and Colleagues

The purpose of this letter is to invite our Open Space colleagues and OS Institute partners around the world to join us in a show of support for the Open Space Institute of Haiti who will be hosting their 10th Annual Open Space on Open Space June 23-26, 2011.  Their theme will be:  “What tools and practices do Haitians need to become agents of change in their communities?”

For a number of years, the OSI US has donated funds to Haiti to help pay for lodging and meals. In 2010, we contributed a more sizeable sum recognizing the urgent need for OS work in Haiti following the catastrophic hurricane.  

This year, we again received a request for financial assistance in the amount of $3250.  A number of local Haiti sponsors are also contributing.  While we have limited funds, we feel strongly that this work deserves our help - thus the idea of this Matching Fund Campaign.

We will match $dollar for $dollar to a maximum of $1625 to help them achieve their goal of raising $3250 total dollars.  If we raise excess funds from this campaign, it would be the intent of the OSI US Institute to make these funds available to serve other underserved communities through vehicles such as the Access Queen which helps lower-income individuals attend World Open Space on Open Space events or through other initiatives that OSI US is involved in that support access, inclusion and connection to the greater OS community.

As we honor their ten years of facilitating, mentoring, teaching and growing Open Space across Haiti, we are appealing to you - our worldwide OS community of friends and colleagues - to join us with a “pay it forward” matching initiative.  For every dollar you contribute - we will match it as we join together to help enable 25 Haitian participants to attend Haiti's OSonOS this year. This matching donation campaign will end on May 15, 2011.

In 2010, 78 people attended the OSonOS - many of them new to Open Space. Their theme last year was:  “What is the role of leaders and community organizations in the reconstruction of a new Haiti, based on the promotion of progress and social justice?” - which generated topics such as these:

  • What are the needs of community organizations for the reconstruction of Haiti?
  • What is the role of Haitians in Haiti’s reconstruction?
  • What results can we expect from using Open Space in communities?
  • How can we help grassroots organizations in the economic and social development of the communities in which they work?
Open Space has been an important process for transformational change in Haiti for many years. Our Open Space colleagues Fremy Cesar and John Engle - along with many others in the Haitian facilitator and educator community - have been using, teaching and sharing open Space to help Haitians help themselves.

For more information and photos, please visit the website of Haiti Partners, one of the funding agencies.  You will see that Fremy and John are part of this and other similar groups in Haiti involved in this work. Take a look at how Open Space is being used across Haiti. At the second link below, you will also see some photos of Haitian butterflies, bumblebees and the Law of Two Feet !

 
 

The comments below by Haitians speak volumes about the benefits of these sponsored Open Space events:

"The experience I had with Open Space has fueled my dream to see Open Space to practice throughout Haiti. It is the only method that can facilitate a true community mobilization, an important factor in the economic and social development in Haiti”.
 
-- Benaja Antoine
 
"After participating in the Open Space in June 2010, it inspired me to form an association of twenty-height women, for whom I did training on risks and disasters. I am very motivated to use the Open Space method because it is a method that creates a dynamic of participation.
 
With Open Space, I learned to cultivate the spirit of tolerance, participation, how to help people to live together cooperatively”.
 
-- Norestin Nellie
 
"Open Space is a method which can play an important role in Haitian society.  Haiti has been in slavery for a great number of years; it takes a lot of time for such a nation to become educated in the right way and I think the OS method can do much in helping to achieve that goal."
 
-- Marie Kerline Janvier
 

We invite you to join us in celebrating the amazing work that has been done in Open Space in Haiti over this past decade by contributing a small or larger donation to support the upcoming Open Space event which will enable many individuals to progress in new ways on their important projects.

Appreciatively, the OSI US Institute Board Members,

 

Suzanne DaigleKaren Davis
Douglas D. Germann Sr.Lisa Heft
Peggy HolmanEdward Laboy
Phelim McDermottBarry Owen
Christine Whitney SanchezHarold Shinsato

 

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