Last night, the KANPE Foundation celebrated its 16th anniversary at the Soho Grand Hotel during UN General Assembly week. Bringing together more than a hundred allies, friends and partners, the evening was an opportunity to look back on 16 years of work alongside rural Haitian communities and to unveil the organization’s next step: expanding its development model to new communities in the years ahead.
“After sixteen years of proven impact, we have a responsibility to go further,” said Dominique Anglade, co-founder of KANPE. “We have built a model that works because it starts with the communities themselves. Now, we want to bring it to more communities.”
Fostering Autonomy
Founded in 2010, KANPE, which means “to stand up” in Haitian Creole, currently works with five communities in Haiti’s Central Plateau through a holistic and integrated approach built on six pillars: leadership, entrepreneurship, agroforestry, education, healthcare and infrastructure.
At the heart of this approach lies a simple conviction: communities know their own realities and needs. KANPE’s role is to create the conditions that allow them to turn their ideas into projects that move them toward autonomy.
Leadership is the starting point. By strengthening the ability of people, especially young people, to make decisions, mobilize their communities and lead initiatives, KANPE creates the conditions for the model’s other pillars to grow. Since 2014, more than 650 people, including more than 230 young people, have been trained in leadership and local governance.
For Régine Chassagne, co-founder of KANPE, the story of the Baille Tourible marching band is a concrete illustration of this approach. Born in 2014 from an idea put forward by a group of young people, the band now trains girls and boys aged 9 to 16, in equal numbers. It also gave rise to the KANPE Summer Camp, a space for both fun and learning. “The best ideas? They never come from us. They come from the people,” said Régine Chassagne.
More than a decade later, the young people who grew up with these initiatives are taking their place in the community: the band’s maestro is a former student, the principal of the national school comes from the community, as do most of the teachers, and former campers now mentor the younger ones.
Celebrating Haiti and Looking Ahead
The evening was also a true celebration of Haitian culture. In a room adorned with tropical plants and nods to Haiti, the staging featured the vèvè of Legba and Damballa, symbols of openness, movement and continuity. Paul Beaubrun, artist and member of KANPE’s Board of Directors, opened the musical program with his dancers, followed by Régine Chassagne, who performed the song “Haïti” for the guests. The evening ended on the dance floor, to the sound of the great classics of Haitian popular music.
KANPE is proud to count on both longtime and new allies in this new phase of growth. As the organization looks to the years ahead, this celebration served as a reminder of what has guided its work since its founding: believing in the potential of Haitian communities and investing in their capacity to build their own future.
KANPE extends its warm thanks to the partners who attended the evening, including Zanmi Lasante, sister organization of Partners In Health, Summits Education, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Surgo Foundation, as well as to all the friends and allies who help move this vision forward.
