They chose this name to honor one of the heroes of the Haitian revolution that achieved independence in the country in 1804 and ended slavery. The nation that currently holds the lowest socio-economic levels in our continent was one of the first to gain independence years before the struggles for freedom started in the rest of the American countries.

An essential part of the coordination project with Haitian peasant organizations is carried out by the Landless Rural Workers Movement.

The work carried out by them includes supporting the organization, socio-political capacity building and agroecological production in a seed program that involves 150 Haitian peasants.

Basically there are two fronts: the installation of over 1000 rainwater tanks and development of an agroecological seeds program.

The idea appeared in 2008 with a capacity-building space in Florestan Fernandes School, until four MST activists travelled to the Caribbean island in 2009.

The first year was focused on diagnosing and knowing the reality of peasant families in Haiti who represent 65% of the population that suffered Duvalier’s neoliberal policies that ended up destroying agriculture.

According to an institutional video by La Via Campesina, one of the pillars of this experience consists of "learning through practice" and it makes reference to the fact that international solidarity is one of the organizational principles for MST and La Via Campesina.

In parallel to this, around 76 Haitian young people were sent to Brazil in the framework of an exchange program with La Via Campesina organizations in that country.

Photo:www.mst.org.br