Holy Trinity School

The Holy Trinity School is an Episcopal School in Port-au-Prince founded in 1913. Proceeds from the craft cooperative at the school are used to provide scholarships for low-income students attending the school. Parents of students at the Holy Trinity Trade School learn skills used to produce crafts sold in the school's gift shop- skills like jewelry-making, carpentry, ceramics, printing, and weaving.

Comité Artisanal Haitien

Global Exchange purchases crafts from the non-profit artists' promotion organization called Comité Artisanal Haitien, founded in Port-au-Prince in 1973. The support given to over 200 Haitian artists through the sale of these unique and well-recognized crafts is an important part of rebuilding grassroots democracy in Haiti. In Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, where jobs are scarce or non-existent, the money earned from craftmaking is not supplemental income, as it might be in other countries, but the sole source of support for most artisans and their families. Haitian Ironwork

The origins of Haitian ironwork, known as "Fer-de-Coupe", is credited to Georges Liataud, a blacksmith born in 1899, in Croix-de-Bouquets, a small town 30 minutes outside of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. Artists buy old steel oil drums, flatten them out, and trace patterns onto the metal sheets. No mechanized tools are used; they are cut by blows of a hammer-on-chisel, and then sanded, sculpted, and either left natural or are brightly painted. Today, Croix-de-Bouquets is the center for "Fer-de-Coupe" where the sound of chisels and hammers is heard everywhere.

Comité Artisanal Haitien
29 Rue 3
Port-au-Prince, Haiti BP 2404
509/22.8440

Jacmel Wood Art

Jacmel is a town of artists on the coast of Haiti. Bright colors and tropical scenes are the most popular expression of art in Jacmel. The Association specializes in these brightly painted wood products. The groups' members have worked hard since the September 1991 coup in Haiti to restore the workshop to its previously thriving production.