Creating and Supporting Schools
Friends of SODA is currently supporting five primary schools serving more than 400 children in the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. The schools are run by volunteer teachers and the students, who would otherwise not be able to afford to go to school, pay nothing to attend them. The schools are located in the neighborhoods of Jakè, Solino, Pele Simon, Mon Laza and Bobin. Funds raised for this program are used to buy books, notebooks, pencils, chalk and other school supplies. The funds are also used to improve and maintain classrooms, to provide occasional stipends to the teachers and to organize teacher-training classes and seminars.

School Lunch Program
Friends of SODA supports the hot lunch program at the AVJ school in the neighborhood of Jakè, which currently feeds more than 120 children five days a week. The kitchen is staffed by volunteers, including mostly parents of the students. Friends of SODA also support SODA’s efforts to start lunch programs in other community-run neighborhood schools that rely on locally grown food in an effort to support national production. Funds are used to buy food and kitchen supplies, and to pay occasional stipends to the cooks.

Scholarship Fund
Many of SODA’s volunteers are students themselves in high school and university who are unable to afford the cost of continuing their studies. Friends of SODA has created a scholarship fund for these student volunteers to encourage them to further their education and to continue giving back to their communities. Scholarship recipients are selected by a committee of Haitian intellectuals overseen by Friends of Soda’s Board of Directors based on the candidates’ academic achievements as well as their volunteer work. The scholarship is used to pay for tuition, books, uniforms and transportation, and recipients are required to file regular progress reports, as well as maintain passing grades and continue their volunteer work with SODA.

Helping Street Kids
Friends of SODA support the efforts of SODA to provide an education and food to street children. Everyday, SODA volunteers give classes and a meal to street children in a public plaza in downtown Port-Au-Prince. Funds are used to pay for the transportation of the teachers and to buy school materials, food and kitchen supplies.

Community Improvement
Friends of SODA supports the creation of public spaces and other community improvement projects carried out by member organizations of SODA that serve to catalyze civic activism and local organizing. Funds are used to pay for supplies such as paint, cement, cinder blocks, wheel barrows, light bulbs, and other construction materials for specific projects that have received the approval of the Friends of SODA board. Funds are also used to support cultural activities, such as a community-based film festival where movies are shown free of charge in the street.

Local Production
At the root of Haiti’s poverty is its dependence on imports, especially staples such as rice, sugar, chicken and eggs. SODA has started tackling this problem by creating an egg-production project with 300 chickens in the neighborhood of Jakè. Friends of Soda is helping SODA run this program and looking for funds to support other SODA projects that promote local food production.