In the spirit of our tagline, Connect, Share, and Act, I have literally taking it to heart. Why? Because if anything is to happen, meaning to move the Haiti agenda forward, we must do these three things in that order: Connect, Share, then Act.

Since launching the 11thdepartment.com nearly a year ago, I have come into contact with some amazing Haitians and Friends of Haiti from all over the world. You can read some of their stories in our Articles section. I feel privileged to be amongst them, learning from them, and discovering their successes and challenges, as well as their continued push toward a new Haiti.

We’re compiling the “Haiti Vision” of all 11thdepartment.com members to share with you next week. You’ll soon realize that we all basically want the same things, which essentially are: to provide education for our people, improve health care, protect the environment, stimulate the economy through entrepreneurship, and to increase agricultural production. All of these things will lead to jobs and prosperity for Haitians.

2016 will be a year of challenge to you so we can work together to achieve these “visions”. Myself, here’s what me and my team have done and are committed to doing (see the enclosed infographic):

- Launched electionsinhaiti.com: a website to help us understand the political landscape of Haiti, review and rate Haitian political figures, both present and past, and participate in “virtual voting” as to their character, leadership and other criteria. The website is lacking a lot of information because there is little information out there to begin with. So, please help as this will be a huge resource not just for Haitians, but for the international community as well. You can log in with your 11thdepartment.com username and password (no new registration is required), and share what you know.

- Launching haitibestfoods.com (Haiti Best Foods) today. Haiti Best Foods is an online marketplace where you can order Haitian food products, and in the process help our farmers produce more. For now, families in the Diaspora can order food for their families in Haiti to either pickup from our three locations, or request delivery directly to their home. Businesses can also place orders for delivery to their facility. Soon we’ll provide service to the Diaspora and international community so you can enjoy your favorite Haitian food and drink.

The chart shows upcoming 11thdepartment.com projects, all will be connected and accessible with the same username and password you use to login to your 11thdepartment.com account. You can easily add your organization to our network. Contact me and I’ll be happy to give you all the details.

The projects we launched would not have been possible without the partnership and support of 11thdepartment.com members, namely Wilfrid Mesadieu of America Continental and Samanda Leroy, both in Haiti. There were many others who provided us with their feedback, which helped us to improve our ideas.

A big thank you to all the 11thdepartment.com members. I look forward to meeting you next year when we start organizing face-to-face encounters.

Let’s Do It Together!