OSODFO, Ca Wouj

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/05/2012 - 20:56

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Cap Wouj is home to the historic Fort Oge, which has been abandoned by the government and fallen into disrepair. The entire community has mobilized to try to revitilize this fort, and reclaim it as a historical site for the country.

Cap Wouj is a rural section lying in the mountains north of Jacmel, home to 16,000 people. It is the site of a historic fort called Fort Oge that was built in 1805, the year after Haiti won its independence, by Nicolas I. The purpose for building the fort was to protect the country from a southern, maritime attack by the French, which Haitians were afraid would try to take back its

territory by any means. Therefore, from the fort, one can see the entire seaboard of Jacmel and all of the communities along it. However, the government has no measures to preserve or protect the fort, and it has been falling into disrepair.

The community of Cap Wouj began to realize that the fort was an incredible resource and a

treasure for the community, and because the state was not taking responsibility for it, the

community would have to. So in 2006, they founded an organisation called OSODFO (Social Organisation for the Development of Fort Oge), with the vision of rehabilitating the fort and through that, rehabilitating the community. They would like it to become a national pilgrimage site, and that if they return the fort to its

proud state then the state would invest in the infrastructure necessary to bring tourists there, such as a decent road (although OSODFO has also started mobilising the community to work on repairing and constructing the road through konbit).

OSODFO also works with agricultural cooperatives in the area, managing a community vegetable nursery to give farmers plants and working to help the local school.

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