Luther student heading to Haiti over the holidays

Luther College senior Junette Maxis will travel to her hometown in the Caribbean nation of Haiti over the holidays to implement round two of the Luther Student Senate Emergency Committee's project "Trash for Development-Empowering Women."

Maxis is working with a Haitian organization called RARA, a not-for-profit social business developed to create jobs and reduce waste in poor communities in Haiti.   Women working in the RARA shop produce bags, sandals, wallets, flip-flops and a wide variety of other objects from recycled waste materials, primarily plastics.

Luther students have raised over $11,000 to contribute to the RARA project.  

The main material used in the production of the women's products is certain types of plastic bags, difficult to acquire in Haiti. But several groups, including students at Crestwood High School, sent boxes of potato chip bags to the women for use in their manufacturing process.

Luther students collected sewing items from several businesses in Decorah, and three sewing machines were donated to the RARA women as a gift from Food for the Poor, a local non-profit organization.

The items will be used to sew and weave the plastic bags into various clothing and footwear items.

"The RARA business is growing at a faster rate than was expected," said Maxis.  "There is a great opportunity to train more women in the business and provide them with jobs."

During winter break, Maxis will return to Haiti to finish the implementation of the project.  She will help provide training to more women, pay rent on the location, and purchase more sewing machines, tables, chairs and an electrical generator for the business.