During our expedition to Haiti in May 2011 we were able to visit Port-au-Prince a year and a half after the earthquake. We also visited the mountains and Jacmel city.  The slide show retraces our discoveries!

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet Haitians pay special attention to their identity and are very proud of their history.  Haiti is home to the first black Republic, installed after the slave revolt against their masters which began on August 23, 1791. This date, a symbol of liberty, has since been designated by UNESCO as the International Day of the Slave Trade and it’s Abolition.  The Republic of Haiti was officially declared on January 1, 1804.

Haiti and it’s combatants contributed to a large, yet neglected, part of history for the conquest of Liberty.  Interest in this history is at the core of The Shackles of Memory’s work since it’s creation in 1991.

The Shackles of Memory is also partners with the association Pays-de-la-Loire/Cameroon which, since it’s creation in December 2009, has been working on a development project centered on cultural and sustainable eco-tourism in Dschang, situated in West Cameroon.  The course of this project was defined by the city of Dschang, in conjunction with it’s different national and international partners, notably the city of Nantes with whom Dschang signed a pact of friendship and cooperation in September 2002.

This cooperation is oriented towards touristic, cultural and economic development of the city of Dschang by way of improvements of, and new constructions at, the municipal lake.  In order to undertake this project, various focal points were established:

• The cultural action: Promote the patrimonial value via the program “The Route of the Chiefdoms"
• The touristic and economic action: Promote eco-tourism and local, sustainable development (Visit the official website at l'Office du tourisme de Dschang).
• The environmental action: Promote the natural resources and enhance the quality of daily life
• The urban action: The construction of commercial and service centers.

This global and unifying project aims to combat poverty, improve the quality of life and to develop economic activities in the region.  A certain number of participants (institutional, business, associations, individuals) are implicated and as such, many diverse operations have been completed.

PFor more information, please consult the website la Route des Chefferies along with the Facebook page of the APLC.

Convinced that development also occurs on a small-scale level, the Shackles of Memory and it’s Burkina Faso partner, the association Promo-Women/Solidarity Development, have once again come together for a project entitled “Preservation of the environment via solar ovens”

Via the circulation of solar ovens, introducing simple techniques which are both accessible and easy to use, this project bears a double goal:

• reduce the abusive felling of trees which is the main cause of desertification in that area of Africa,
• improve the daily conditions of women who actively participate in the decline of ground vegetation due to their culinary practices.

These two associations intend, through this project, to contribute to the preservation and protection of the environment, but more importantly, to help women understand different ecological phenomena as well as to circulate certain methods which aid in the fight against desertification.

For more information on the association: PFDS.

In April 1993, the Shackles of Memory organized a conference entitled "Africa, the proposals".  The objective of this conference was to promote concrete development projects and to reflect upon new partnerships between the North and the South.

Over the course of the debates, a certain number of assessments were recognized, in particular:

• the obvious link between democracy, education, health and development,
• the importance for the emancipation of women as well as the importance of their participation in politics within the democratic process in Africa, and as such, within the development of the continent,
• the necessity to reconstruct the political, economic and social systems executed by individuals gathered together from local communities and not from a far away State, oftentimes too cut off from the daily needs of the communities, and who rarely correspond to the traditions of the African cultures.

Various projects were backed by the Shackles of Memory.