haitifablab.org

Fablabs are a way to challenge the ill-fitting mass produced solutions often provided as answers to personal problems. Fablabs are workshops with a suite of personal fabrication machines that allow users themselves to make almost anything. What this means is different in each Fablab-- a lab in rural India will have people making completely different things from a Fablab in inner city Boston.  Fablabs allow ordinary folks to custom make fabricated solutions to their own problems.

Fablabs all share similar technologies-- a laser cutter, small 3 axis mill, vinyl cutter, electronics fabrication tools and a large 3 axis mill (view the latest inventory list), and are connected to each other via persistent video links. This allows any lab in the world to share processes and expertise with any other lab. The Fablabs started as an outreach program in MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, and now have expanded to over 30 labs around the world.

Since  2004 a wide cross-section of Haitians, the Haitian diaspora, and friends of Haiti have been interested in establishing a Fablab in Haiti. As is often the case with Fablabs, finding a strong owner, users, and raising community will to act takes time to develop. The earthquake in January 2010 sharpened the need to focus on uses that have both short term practical value as well as long term developmental potential. Yogesh Kulkarni pedals a drip-watering bicycle, near rapidly constructed bamboo greenhouses. Photos by Nadya Peek.

Now is the time to start rebuilding -- not the Haiti that existed before the earthquakes -- but a Haiti that Haitians want and deserve. Haitians need to function as their own government, their own economic stimulus and their own educators. Fablabs are part of addressing local needs, be it through objects or education. We are currently talking to educators and communities in Haiti to determine the best Haitian stakeholder for a Fablab. Meanwhile, we have started fundraising for a Fablab, because either way it will take us a while to raise the 250k we need. If we are unable to raise enough money for a Fablab in Haiti, the funds will roll over to Partners in Health's Haiti Fund. For more information, contact Nadya Peek at peek at mit dot edu.