Our Low-Tech Community Workshop & Shop

We created a community workshop where people can learn traditional crafts, build low tech solutions and repair their own devices.
Our low tech solutions are machines that work without electricity or motors, from local materials.

It includes: pedal-powered machines (for grinding or mixing) ; rocket stove ; solar dryers ; water filters and rainwater collector

A workshop to create micro-economies, to build autonomy

The goal is to help young people learn, work for themselves, and earn small incomes.

To support learning, we pay local artisans to teach weekly classes in the workshop. These include sewing, carpentry, and the production of everyday items such as shoes, brooms, and other useful objects.
Young people can also build low-tech solutions with us. For example, pedal powered machine to grind corn and to blend fruits and sell this service to the other habitants to generate direct, sustainable income.

The workshop also aims to reduce dependence on external aid and the unpredictable tourism sector, given the country’s current situation.

A shop to finance the workshop

Several sailboats from the Low Tech Armada bring equipment to support the association. This equipment is sold to locals at low prices so that everyone can afford it. All money from the shop goes directly to the workshop.

By the Community, For the Community

The workshop is located in the village’s center, on the beach, a place where residents gather. Local residents have been involved from the very beginning of the workshop and will run it themselves.

Low-tech solutions are already on Île-à-Vache, but they are not valued enough, especially by young people. So we support local artisans in their projects and pay them to give classes to the youth.

Supporting Fishermen on Île-à-Vache

We collect sails, ropes, masks, and fishing equipment to support the fishermen of Île-à-Vache, Haiti.

Fishing is vital on the island. It is essential to feed local families, and it is also one of the only economic resources available to the population. Almost every household depends directly or indirectly on small-scale fishing.

Today, most fishermen sail with equipment in very poor condition. Their sails are torn, heavily patched, and often made from very old sails or even rice bags sewn together. Ropes are worn out, and basic safety equipment is missing. This severely limits their ability to work and puts them at risk at sea.

Through our network, we collect used but still usable sailing and fishing equipment from sailors in different ports and countries, and bring it by sailboat to Île-à-Vache. These simple materials make a huge difference: they allow fishermen to work again, to work more safely, and to maintain their autonomy.

If you are a sailor and have sails, ropes, masks, or fishing gear you no longer use, please get in touch.
Your equipment can directly support livelihoods on the island.

Supporting a producer of dried mangoes

In the Caribbean, mangoes ripen in abundance during a short season, and without ways to preserve them, many go to waste. Nesilnor—a farmer of Ile-à-Vache—used to dry mangoes with solar dryers.

This activity had stopped because his collaborator Michel, a Frenchman who used to sell the dried mangoes in France, could no longer travel to Haiti—Port-au-Prince has become too dangerous due to armed gang control, making international access extremely difficult.

But by sailing we can come to Ile-à-Vaches and ship the mangoes by sail.

So thanks to the power of the wind, we are getting the project back on its feet and they are already drying mangoes !

You can already reserve your pack of dried mangoes by sending us a message.

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