Inside ELAW: Fellow Jean André Victor

 “I have mixed
feelings going
back to
my country.
Happy to go
back home, but
sad to leave
home.”

Jean André Victor
ELAW guestbook

“For more than 20 years, Jean André Victor worked as an agronomist in Haiti, trying to solve the riddle of how to fix the centuries of environmental degradation and poverty that has kept Haiti from developing a self sustaining economy and food supply.  But, ‘the main problem is that you can’t solve the degradation of Haiti with projects,’ says Victor.

“This spring, at the age of 68, Victor came to Eugene to discuss law and policy with scientists and other attorneys, write the first textbook on environmental law in Haiti and learn English at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute.   He came through the help of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide .  .  .

“He will return to Haiti this summer – a country that was struggling even before the devastating January earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians, including Victor’s mother – and try to change his country from within.”

Excerpt from “Healing Haiti: Changing a Country from Within,” by Camilla Mortensen, Eugene Weekly, June 10, 2010.  (www.eugeneweekly.com/2010/06/10/coverstory.html)

ELAW hosted Jean André Victor from Haiti for a three-month ELAW Fellowship (March 29 – June 29).  Jean André is an environmental attorney and an agronomist.

He worked one-on-one with ELAW staff to advance his work to protect biodiversity in Haiti, including launching projects involving tree planting and fuel-efficient cookstoves.  He completed a first draft of the first book of Haiti’s environmental laws and participated in a ten-week intensive English program at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute.  Many thanks to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the American English Institute, for supporting Jean Andre’s Fellowship.