17.  Haiti Outreach is a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota committed to a transformation of these circumstances.

18.  The vision of Haiti Outreach is "for Haiti to become a developed country".  Our mission is “to collaborate with the people of Haiti to build and maintain community-initiated projects that advance their development.”

 19.  The primary focus of the work of Haiti Outreach as been to help the people of Haiti develop clean, available water systems for their communities.

 20.  Many organizations have come to Haiti is render assistance to the people.

 21.  Most of this work, however well-intentioned, has had very little long-term impact.

 22.  The reason is, that these organizations have operated with the model that building something for the people, or doing things for them, is the way to improve their conditions.

 23.  But the Haitian people are rarely included in the decision-making process about what is to be done.

 24.  Sometimes they don’t even participate in the work.

 25. And rarely is a maintenance program created so that the work will be carried on after the organization leaves.

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