History and Context of UNIF

The University of Fondwa is the sole university in the republic of Haiti which operates in a communal section (Fond’Oies, the 10th communal section of the commune of Léogane, Department of the West, Haiti). The university was born through a peasant association named the "Assosyasyon Peyizan Fondwa” (Association of Peasants of Fondwa, APF) and was created in order to address the problems confronted by the Haitian peasantry in the 572 communal sections of the country.

Fondwa, which is the Creole version of its legal/French name Fond'Oies, is a Communal Section of Léogâne. The communal section represents the smallest geographical unit of the republic of Haiti and divide all of Haiti’s larger “communes”. In the past, these sections were known as "rural sections" in reference to their rural nature and isolation from the major cities. These sections were administered by the Haitian state under a “rural code” until 1996, while the “grand cities” of Haiti were governed under separate codes and policies. The presence of the state in these rural areas was, and in many ways still is today, minimal and sometimes virtually non-existent. The citizens born in these rural sections are still to this day designated as "peasants.”

The convergence of the rural sections with cities in 1996 was a part of decentralization measures attempting to combat the large socio-economic inequality between the cities and rural areas and is why today we find both rural and urban communal sections. However, the historical divide and prejudices against Haiti’s peasantry is deep, and today one of the largest socio-economic inequalities in Haitian society exists between the denizens of the rural communal sections and the bourgeois-dominated cities. The peasantry is among the most marginalized of groups in Haiti, deprived in almost all ways when compared to those in the cities, with an incredibly weak access to public services and little to no protection of their human rights. Here, in the communal sections, we find enormous social, economic, cultural, food security, nutritional, technological, and academic inequality between the peasantry and the residents of the major cities.

Prejudices against the peasantry remain deeply engrained. The word "rural" itself has a pejorative connotation and comes with stereotypes of backwardness and an inability to self-govern. While all of Haiti is technically divided into communal sections, there is a stark difference between the prestige afforded to elected officials in the rural and urban areas. The local government of the rural sections (the CASEC, the Board of the Communal Section) do not receive the same prestige, funding, or capacity as those in the cities, where the government for the entire commune usually sits. Therefore, the communal governments are predisposed to be more active in the urban areas.

In such an environment, all of Haiti is in desperate need for a symbol of rural self-empowerment, action, and development, in order to valorize and lift up the communal sections. APF was a response to this need, and to this day operates as a national symbol which undermines the discriminatory narrative towards the peasantry.

APF is a national Haitian NGO, founded in 1988 by farmers in the Haitian village of Fondwa under the coordination of Father Joseph Philippe, with the mission to empower local grassroots organizations in Haiti to create wealth in their communities. APF’s has provided essential public services to Fondwa since its conception, including creating the Fondwa road, planting over 500,000 trees through their reforestation project, and operating a local health center, orphanage, primary and high school, radio station, and credit union in Fondwa.

In 2001, to celebrate the 200th year anniversary of Haiti’s independence, APF organized several collaborative forums, which included Fondwa peasants as well as individuals from Cuba and the United States, on how best to serve Fondwa’s peasantry. The idea of a “popular” university was born from this – where peasants and international collaborators would serve as both professors and students.

This collaboration culminated in the founding of the University of Fondwa by APF in 2004. As the only university in Haiti which operates directly within a communal section, UNIF is a foundational actor to overcome the historical inequalities which exist between the communal sections and the cities. Furthermore, it is an entity which attaches itself to the principles of sustainable and integrated development. The university aims to be the standard-bearer in the country for local development and empowerment of the peasantry by following a participatory process of local initiatives as a motor for economic and social development. UNIF believes that local development must include the following three key principles: responding to the needs of the population and helping them become active and responsible in this fight against poverty; ensuring social and economic progress in the local area; and instilling the fight against poverty and inequality in all activities.

At around the same time that UNIF was founded, so was uFondwa-USA, a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, with the mission to fundraise for UNIF in Haiti. It was through uFondwa-USA that the first few investments were made to open UNIF.