Boucan Carré

Boucan-Carré (Haitian Creole: Boukan Kare) is a commune in the Mirebalais Arrondissement, in the Centre Department of Haiti. It has 48,700 inhabitants. Two schools, a church, and a hospital within Boucan Carre are supported by the Haiti Outreach Program in Knoxville, Tennessee Give Haiti Hope.

Map of Boucan-Carr%C3%A9, Haiti

Boucan Carre has seen some massive changes in the last few years with a new primary school completed in 2005, and the clinic has grown into a full-on hospital which is supported by Paul Farmer's organization, Partners In Health (known as Zanmi Lasante in Haitian Creole) out of Boston, MA.

Friday is Market Day and the population of Chambeau (the center of town) quadruples in size. Where there was rarely a vehicle of any kind there in 2004, there are now many motorbikes (China) and even 4x4 toyota trucks in the area now.

The Boucan-Carre River cuts through the center of the town of Chambeau. Please note that Haitian maps allow for different spellings of Boucan-Carre. Here are some other examples that can be found: Boukan Care, Boukan-Carre, Boucan-Kare).

Boucan Carre is a geographic expression likened to a county in the USA. It is a huge area of land, most of which is covered in mountains and deep valleys. Agriculture and the production of charcoal made from cutting down trees are the primary ways to get by for the locals.

The UN has made substantial improvements to the roads leading to the area from Port-au-Prince airport (PAP) so that what used to take 4.5 hours to go 45 miles back in 2004 now takes only 2 hours to arrive in Chambeau.

Since the destructive earthquake that struck the Port-au-Prince area in January 2010, many people are returning to family from that city which is causing further strain on the people and land. Clean water is still hard to come by and everything remains very expensive due to devaluation of the Haitian dollar and the extreme stress on the economy in general. All goods are expensive the further away you get from Port-au-Prince. All of rural Haiti is in flux and is experiencing a deep strain brought on by the earthquake.

There are plans and funding for a new secondary school to be built in Chambeau which is to begin construction in the summer of 2010. Update November 2012 – The Secondary School, Built and supported by The Haiti Outreach Program in Knoxville,Tn, is complete and operational at this time.

Digicel built a large Cellular Telephone Repeater Tower in B.C. in about 2008, and so many of the people in the Central Plateau now ride a donkey talking on their cell phones.