Why Foreign Aid Keeps Failing — and What Haiti Did Differently | Ep.2 | ProutCast

Описание: Foreign aid often fails to create real change. In this episode, humanitarian Demeter Russafov shares how communities in Haiti built sustainable progress from the ground up — and what the world can learn from it.

Welcome to ProutCast. In this episode we speak with Demeter Russafov, a humanitarian, environmental planner and social entrepreneur whose long-term work in Haiti has reshaped communities with a model that goes way beyond charity and relief, focusing on sustainable development and economic democracy.

Demeter has directed AMURT Haiti since 2004 and helped found DESPRI in 2014. Over two decades their programmes have spread across multiple regions of Haiti — from sea-salt production and moringa cultivation to reforestation, soil conservation and community-led economic initiatives.
Today, DESPRI and associated programmes employ hundreds of Haitian staff and place particular emphasis on bottom-up empowerment and women’s leadership.

In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss:
• failures and pitfalls of conventional aid and disaster capitalism
• practical steps for shifting from short-term relief to long-term, community-led development
• the self-help group model implemented involving 5,400+ women organised into local groups, federations and a savings network
• how economic democracy works in practice and its role in rebuilding trust and local agency
• lessons on leadership, humility, and facilitating transformation without imposing it

Learn more about AMURT Haiti:
https://amurthaiti.org/
Learn more about DESPRI
https://www.desprihaiti.org/
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