what makes us tick

A Letter from the Executive Director


Dear Friends of EarthSpark,

This holiday season, EarthSpark has much to be grateful for. With your support, we have planned, funded, and launched our first clean energy store in Haiti; we have sent over 5,500 solar lamps to women and girls who have been living under tents and tarps since the January earthquake; and we have been recognized for our work in Haiti by the Clinton Global Initative. For your role in these successes, we give thanks to you.

With fresh tumult from the recent cholera outbreak and yesterday’s Presidential election, these are troubling and uncertain times for Haiti. It is precisely in times like these that even a modicum of good news can be reason for hope. That good news comes in the form of the “story” of EarthSpark’s Clean Energy Store, which we recount in this progress report.

We are truly humbled by the passion and selflessness of our partners in Les Anglais, who are transforming the town into a center for clean energy excellence. Les Anglais is now attracting interest from internationally-recognized clean energy enterprises, and EarthSpark is actively working on partnerships with these enterprises to bring clean charcoal production, efficient appliances and business machinery, and a micro-grid to the town. Their stories provide early evidence that our model can eradicate energy poverty in Haiti.

Shortly after the January earthquake, EarthSpark received reports of violence against women in the displaced persons camps in and around Port-au-Prince. We quickly responded, raising over $75,000 to purchase 5,500 solar lamps which we sent to several trusted partners on the ground for distribution to women and girls. This effort has not gone unnoticed. In October, EarthSpark’s president, Allison Archambault, was honored for EarthSpark’s work at a ceremony hosted by the American Jewish World Service. Citizen Effect, a nonprofit that works to enable individuals to meet philanthropic goals, recently picked EarthSpark as one of their causes. EarthSpark was also selected as the cause of PACT, a Bay Area organic apparel company, for its 2010 holiday campaign. Through this collaboration with Citizen Effect and PACT, we hope to send another 3,000 lamps to Haiti by February 2011.

Lastly, President Bill Clinton recognized EarthSpark for our transformative work in Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York this September. Through CGI, EarthSpark has been able to play a stronger role in the development of Haiti’s clean energy future. Recently, I was asked by the Haitian Ministry of Public Works to moderate a breakout session on rural and renewable energy at their conference to develop consensus on policy and strategy for a national energy sector development plan. During the breakout session, my group assembled a progressive set of policies and strategies into a brief “roadmap” document that was submitted to the Ministry of Public Works. The Ministry intends to use this roadmap as an input to the new national energy sector development plan. EarthSpark will continue to be engaged in both the planning and implementation of the national energy plan.

There has never been a more exciting time than now for clean energy in Haiti. We hope that you will find the stories told in this progress report to be as inspiring as we do.

With best wishes for a joyful holiday season,

Dan Schnitzer, Co-Founder and Executive Director