After three years of traveling back and forth from Haiti to Orcas, Rosedanie Cadet has decided to spend the next year on just one island.

“The skills that I have to offer are skills that many people on Orcas have, but my skills are needed in Limbe [Haiti],” she said. “It’s hard to leave, but it’s time to go.”

After being gone from her country for 37 years, Cadet visited her homeland in 2009 just  weeks before Haiti was devastated by the 7.0 earthquake that left more than 300,000 residents dead. In the following months, 6,000 died of cholera.

Her cousins survived but their house was destroyed and Cadet’s life was irrevocably changed. She eventually founded the nonprofit Helping Hands Noramise in the northern town of Limbe, which provides social and developmental programs for income, pride and social activism. Cadet said it’s not a charity program  – everyone must volunteer to receive the benefits of education, fresh food from their garden or chlorine for water purification.

Cadet describes the work in Haiti as challenging and rewarding, taking steps forward and backward on any given day. She remains steadfast in her message that with limited resources and education life can be made better. It was that message that made her feel like she needed to spend this next year in Limbe to prove that she was committed.

“There will be a deeper foundation if I stay longer,” she said.

With a plane ticket departing for Haiti in January, Cadet looks forward to continuing developing gardens, reforestation and implementing biochar, an alternative fertilizer. All three of these have something powerful in common: food. The importance of such sustenance came to Cadet on her first visit back to Haiti as an adult.

“A country that can’t feed itself is dependent on others for a basic need,” she said.

Food also brings people together whether it be through working the soil or by gathering to eat. She hopes Limbe will be more like Orcas where there are farms and private gardens and where most islanders share and trade with one another.

The reforestation project involves planting fruit trees and beneficial plants on a barren hillside located on the outskirts of Limbe. Work started last year involving the planting of produce to be used for consuming or selling. Cadet said there is a core group of 13 Ravine de Roches residents that have taken on the planting project. Taking on the work and decision-making responsibilities was rocky at first, but Cadet said the core of 13 has taken ownership.

Also in January, there will be a workshop held in Limbe by Samuel Michel who lives on another Haitian Island called La Gonave. He is certified in reforestation and permaculture.

“…that is our model – we teach a group something and practice it or teach it to someone else without exchanging money,” said Cadet. “It’s a knowledge bank between Haitians across the country.”

Cadet also hopes to work with Carbon Roots International (http://www.carbonrootsinternational.org), which is also located in northern Haiti and produces biochar and green charcoal to reduce deforestation, increase agricultural productivity and alleviate poverty in Haiti. Biochar is used to fertilize soil.

“It’s made using dried farm biomass [seed pods, corn cobs,twigs], things that would be burned anyway … it can also be compressed to make cooking charcoal,” said Cadet.

She hopes to unite different organizations in Haiti to show the community in Limbe that help is within their reach.

Other projects like mango-processing and tilapia aquaculture are on her “to-do” list, but Cadet said that Helping Hands Noramise is still looking for partners in-country to help realize these goals.

As she prepares to depart she looks back on Orcas as a healing place that has helped her to see what she must do.

“There are some people that walk the same path for a lifetime. Some people travel different paths throughout their life,” she said. “My path now leads to Limbe.”

Cadet will be holding an open house on Dec. 21 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kitchen to answer questions. For more info, visit http://noramise.org and sign up for the quarterly newsletter or call Cadet at 360-420-1331 or email her at rosedane@noramise.org.