A youth-owned farm cooperative that turns a plot of land, a cohort of young people, and $3,650 into a business the youth own. Here is exactly how... down to the last gourde, down to the newest hand.
A TapTap is one farm franchise. Twelve young people, one plot of land, $3,650 to launch. It grows food, processes it into products, sells them, and splits the profit among the people who did the work... who learn the whole trade and earn a share of ownership as they go. Not a job program. Not a handout. A business the workers own, watch, and cannot be forced to sell.
Se pa charite. Se pou nou tout. — It is not charity. It belongs to all of us.
A franchise of twelve youth produces roughly 75,000 HTG a month in sales once established. It pays for itself by Month 4 and returns more than $7,200 on the original $3,650 in the first year. The rule that makes it hold: fast first, slow second. Start with crops that pay in weeks, layer in the slow, high-value ones behind them, so the youth see money in their hands within a month and the momentum never breaks.
| Product | Time to first sale | Monthly revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, callaloo) | 3 weeks | 15,000 HTG |
| Herbs (basil, thyme, parsley) | 4 weeks | 8,000 HTG |
| Peppers, tomatoes | 8–10 weeks | 20,000 HTG |
| Rabbits (3 does) | 3 months | 10,000 HTG |
| Eggs (12 hens) | 2–5 months | 12,000 HTG |
| Worm castings / vermicast | 6 weeks | 5,000 HTG |
| Honey (2 hives) | 6 months | 8,000 HTG/qtr |
Every site gets Tier 1 regardless of terrain. Tiers 2 and 3 adapt to the land... flat with water grows beds and rabbits, a steep hillside grows hedgerows and bees, a dry site runs larvae and worms.
Every waste is the next thing's input. Each product feeds another, so after Month 2 the purchased inputs drop to almost nothing.
After Month 2, the only things a TapTap buys are seeds, packaging, and the occasional animal. Everything else feeds itself.
Selling raw greens pays the bills. Selling processed products builds wealth... same garden, same youth, four to ten times the revenue. Every product carries the TapTap name.
| Raw | Processed into | Margin jump |
|---|---|---|
| Peppers | Sòs Piman TapTap (hot sauce) | 10× |
| Moringa leaves | Moringa TapTap (powder) | 10× |
| Herbs | Dried herb packets | 8× |
| Fruit | Juice or dried fruit | 6× |
| Peanuts | Manba TapTap (peanut butter) | 4× |
| Worm castings | Tè Rich TapTap (fertilizer) | 3× |
There is no one on a TapTap who works and does not own... from the youth who sweeps the pack-shed to the director who runs the zone, everyone holds shares. Here is where every gourde of a 75,000 HTG month goes.
And the share rises as the worker rises. Nobody stays an apprentice... the ladder is built so that experience converts into both income and ownership.
| Role | Monthly share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Apranti | 3,000 HTG + 100 shares/mo | Learning and producing. Paid from Day 1, during training. |
| Asosye | 21% of franchise profit | A proven producer, after ~6 months. ~12,600 HTG/mo. |
| Asosye Direktè | 33% of profit | Leading a team, after ~18 months. ~19,800 HTG/mo. |
| Direktè Zonn | 42% of profit + board seat | Running a zone, after ~3 years. Can launch new franchises. |
Skip one and it leaks. Together they cost almost nothing and they are what keep the value from being captured.
Workers elect three people to run the farm (Komite Jaden) and three different people to watch them (Komite Vijilans). Neither can fire the other. Both answer to the full assembly.
Every Friday, what came in and where it went. Every month, a summary to all members and investors. Every quarter, the full books. Every year, an outside check. No secrets.
The farm belongs to the group. Members have use rights... farm, earn, sit on the board. Leave, and the group buys back your shares at book value. The farm itself is never for sale.
The three watchdogs can freeze all money for 72 hours if all three agree. The freeze triggers an emergency assembly, and only the full group can lift it. Nobody overrides this. Not the board, not an investor, nobody.
Every three months one person from outside sits in on the assembly. No vote, no authority... they look at the numbers and say what they see. That alone keeps everyone honest.
Spreadsheets intimidate people who do not use them, so the spreadsheet comes to the team instead. Every day at 5 PM the site leader gets four questions by text, in Kreyòl. They reply with four numbers. Those replies fill a live dashboard the director opens on a phone. No app, no internet, no training.
| Daily | Four SMS questions at 5 PM → a live dashboard, in real time | 60 sec |
| Weekly | Friday circle... read the numbers, each youth names one thing learned | 30 min |
| Monthly | Revenue, expenses, shares vested → WhatsApp summary to all | — |
| Quarterly | Full assembly with the outside advisor present | — |
Nobody touches a garden bed until training is done. Month 1 is the training month, and it is paid... the youth earn their stipend and their first 100 shares before they grow a thing.
| Week | What they learn |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Life skills... the five rules, reading numbers, conflict resolution, what ownership means |
| Week 2 | Growing... raised beds, drip irrigation, planting schedules, organic pest control |
| Week 3 | Animals & compost... rabbits, worms, BSF larvae, eggs |
| Week 4 | Business... record-keeping, market pricing, the equity ladder, running their own Friday circle |
Every franchise puts 10% of net profit into a shared Growth Trust. That Trust becomes the replication engine... it launches new franchises without any outside investor.
| Month | Franchises | Trust balance |
|---|---|---|
| Month 6 | 1 | 36,000 HTG |
| Month 12 | 2 | 108,000 HTG |
| Month 18 | 4 | 252,000 HTG |
| Month 24 | 6 | ~500,000 HTG ($3,650) |
By Month 24, six franchises generate enough to launch a new one every two months, on their own money. One farm becomes a zone. Zones become a federation under one brand. Nobody can take the Trust. Nobody can defund it. It grows because the franchises grow.
Every rule above is a lock against extraction. The workers own it, so the value stays with the people who made it. Three of them can freeze it, so no one drains it. Nobody can sell it, so it cannot be captured. The Trust replicates it, so it does not depend on a donor's next check. That is the whole design. A TapTap is not a charity that hopes to become sustainable... it is a business, owned from Day 1 by the youth who run it.
Not aid. Ownership. · KONKRET × BARSS · Konekte Kreye Travay (connect · create · work)
One more farm is one more job is one more way out for Haiti's youth. Every TapTap begins with someone who decided to help start the next one.