Our Partners and Network

Association of Peasants of Fondwa
APF is the primary founder of UNIF. Due to its status as a founding organization, APF has a guaranteed representation among the UNIF Board of Trustees. APF and UNIF have always enjoyed a very close relationship. The goal of APF and UNIF’s collaboration is to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship as two partner organizations, while APF also ensures that UNIF adheres its mission to helping the Haitian peasantry through its seats on the UNIF Board.

uFondwa-USA
uFondwa-USA is UNIF’s American counterpart and is a legalized 501(c)3 non-profit that has for mission to fundraise for UNIF in Haiti. Therefore, UNIF and uFondwa-USA enjoy an extremely close relationship, especially among the two governing boards.

Father Joseph Network
The Father Joseph Network is a nascent organization that seeks to increase the collaboration between the four organizations that Father Joseph Philippe has founded (including APF, UNIF, the Sisters of St. Antoine, and Fonkoze). Currently, the four member organizations are collaborating on a sweet potato project which UNIF leads, as UNIF has extensive experience in researching sweet potatoes.

Sisters of St. Antoine
The Sisters of St. Antoine in Fondwa are a key partnership for UNIF. They are closely related due to both being founded by Father Joseph and being part of the Father Joseph Network. The relationship between the Sisters of St. Antoine and UNIF is extremely close and very effective. The two organizations work together in a variety of ways. Most importantly, the Sisters own a large amount of land in various parts of Haiti, especially in the Hinche region. The Sisters allow UNIF to work on this land, which gives UNIF professors and students valuable space for research projects, crop production, class practices, or student internships. This in turn gives a source of labor to the Sisters to develop the land and sell the crops produced.

Fonkoze
Similar to the Sisters of St. Antoine, Fonkoze is another institution founded by Father Joseph and a member of the Father Joseph Network. It is also a key partner for UNIF. One of the clearest areas where the two organizations work together is in internships and job opportunities, as the Fonkoze Foundation hires many UNIF students for both summer internship and as full time employees after graduation. Two UNIF professors are also members of the Fonkoze Foundation Board of Directors. In addition, Fonkoze has funded student research projects that align with its interests.

Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa
The Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa (UEPG), located in Paraná, Brazil, is one of UNIF’s strongest and most successful partnerships. The partnership includes collaboration on research projects, especially on sweet potatoes and innovations in their cultivation adapted for rural Haitian peasantry. It also includes professor supports, as UEPG has sent a professor to teach agronomy courses each year since the partnership formally began in 2018. Finally, in the framework of this partnership, UEPG has also awarded a UNIF graduate a scholarship to seek a master’s degree in agronomy at UEPG, and that student is set to enroll in UEPG for the 2020-2021 school year.

The Julian Grace Foundation
The Julian Grace Foundation (JGF) is one of UNIF’s most valued partners. They have helped fund multiple UNIF initiatives including the scholarship programs operated through RHF, the elaboration of a new manual of policies and procedures for UNIF, UNIF staff development, the creation of Terra Preta plots in Fondwa, and more.

University of Arkansas
UNIF is currently exploring and developing several different projects in association with different departments of University of Arkansas. The main nexus of these collaborations is through Rogelio Garcia-Contreras, PhD, who is a current Board Member of uFondwa-USA and Director of Social Innovation at the University of Arkansas. One of the largest collaborations is through research on consumer rice preferences in Haiti between the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Arkansas and the School of Business Management at UNIF.

Virginia Tech
The relationship between Virginia Tech and UNIF began in 2015 when Virginia Tech accepted a UNIF graduate into their master’s program on scholarship. Since then, Virginia Tech has also sent delegations of professors and students to Fondwa to conduct diagnostical work in the community and consulting advice to UNIF. A keystone in this relationship has been Laura Zanotti, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech as well as a current Board Member of uFondwa-USA.

Centro Universitario de Guantánamo
The Centro Universitario de Guantánamo (CUG) was one of the key founding partners of APF in the founding of UNIF. CUG participated in the workshops which led to UNIF’s creation, participated with APF in the elaboration of the UNIF founding statutes, and sent over the first Rector and administrator of UNIF when UNIF was founded in 2004.

Universidad de Oriente – Santiago de Cuba
The Universidad de Oriente has a large and prestigious veterinary school which provides  consulting and technical support to the School of Veterinary Medicine at UNIF. Other opportunities for this partnership include UNIF exploring the new curriculum innovation developed by the Universidad de Oriente called “Agronomy Entrepreneurship” which focuses on teaching agronomists how to create financial opportunities in their home communities. Furthermore, both schools are exploring the possibility of offering scholarships for graduating UNIF students and current UNIF professors for Masters/PhDs at the Universidad de Oriente.