Haiti Anecdotes and Admiration

by Aly Lewis

Jean Marie Jeanlys is a Plant With Purpose member in the community of Haute Terre Froide. His household of 8 expanded to include four more relatives—all too young to contribute to household income—who were displaced during the quake. As a part of Plant With Purpose’s Short-term Employment project, Jean was paid to construct soil erosion barriers. The barriers conserve soil and protect farmers’ crops in Jean’s community, giving Jean a meaningful way to earn income and support his family. “The project helps. Any little income helps,” said Jean.

I know I’m biased, but I would just like to share with you why I think Plant With Purpose’s response to the earthquake in Haiti-from food distribution and road clearing to seed and tool distribution to our short-term employment and soil conservation project—is absolutely awesome:

• We’re already here. We’ve partnered with Haitian farmers to overcome poverty for the past 12 years.
• 99% of Haiti relief aid is going to Port-au-Prince, but thousands of people have fled the devastated city and returned to the rural areas—where we work. The revitalization of rural agriculture will play a critical role in establishing food security and contributing to the future health and prosperity of Haiti.
• Our Short-Term Employment project provides farmers with much needed cash without resorting to handouts. Farmers can earn money to support their families while engaging in productive, restorative work that will have lasting benefits for the land, their families, and their communities.
• The project allows us to expand our reach. We’re working with new communities, reforesting new microwatersheds, and encouraging new families to implement sustainable, income-generating projects.
• We’re stimulating the Haitian economy by purchasing local seeds from Haitian distributors for our Seed and Tool Distribution Project. Similarly, all of the rice and cooking oil purchased for our Food Distribution Project was bought from local Haitian venders, supporting not undermining the fragile Haitian economy.
• In our Seed and Tool Distribution project, seeds are being provided on a partial credit basis with a 20% repayment rate in-kind. We’ve found that requiring farmers to pay back a portion of the seed they were given with the seed they produce encourages a stronger sense of ownership of the project as well as increased community participation. It also equips Plant With Purpose with a bean supply that can be distributed in future emergencies.

And this is all in conjunction with Plant With Purpose’s ongoing work of teaching sustainable agriculture, granting access to credit, and empowering communities to take ownership of their problems and work collectively to implement creative solutions. Sounds pretty awesome to me. (Maybe I should have titled this post Haiti Testimonies and Horn Tooting)

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Aly Lewis is Plant With Purpose’s Grant Writer. She researches funding opportunities, writes proposals, and submits progress reports on funding received. She also writes the content for Plant With Purpose's Sponsor A Village program.

Haiti Update

Here is a quick update of our recovery efforts in Haiti over the last week.

Food Distribution:

• Last Tuesday 24 families in Cherident were given rice and cooking oil.
• We made our first food delivery to Cornillon (part of Plant With Purpose’s northern border project). 18.5 tons of rice and 1,585 liters of cooking oil were distributed to 230 families in 5 communities.
• 22.7 tons of rice and 1,632 liters of oil were distributed in 14 communities in the Grande Colline region, including 1.5 tons of rice that were given to local authorities to distribute among community members who are not involved with Plant With Purpose’s programs.
• Food distribution began in Fonds Verrettes (southern Border Project) this weekend and will continue throughout the week.
• 7.6 tons of rice and 576 liters of oil were distributed among authorities from several Sections in the Leogane region.
• Plant With Purpose has distributed approximately 74.8 tons of rice and 11,125 liters of cooking oil in 45 of our member and 2 non-member communities.

Emergency Food Production:

• We have purchased 70,178 lbs of the 75,000 lbs of seed that we need for the project. 7,500 lbs of seeds came from the seed reserves we accumulated as farmers repaid 20% of the bean seeds that were given to them after the storms of 2008,
• Seed distribution began this week, and farmers will begin planting right away in order to produce nutritious food in the next crop cycle.

Short-term employment and Soil Conservation project:

• We have an inventory of 41,300 tree seedlings available from our nurseries and we have ordered 135,000 tree seedlings from local providers.
• We will begin recruiting workers this week to plant seedlings and construct soil erosion barriers on deforested hillsides.

Haiti Relief Progress Update

Plant With Purpose is making great progress in providing immediate aid to the people of Haiti. Thus far, we have distributed 16.245 tons of rice and 5,940 liters of cooking oil to 42 communities. The project has been successful in bringing much needed food to families, and we plan to continue and expand our food distribution to include the community of Fonds Verrettes.

Additionally, our seed distribution project is underway; staff members have identified local providers for both tools and seeds and have ordered 20,000 lbs of pois seeds and 1,000lbs of sorghum for farmers to plant in Grande Goave and Fonds Verrettes. This will enable farmers to grow food to feed their families in the next harvest.

We have also been gearing up to implement a short-term employment program through reforestation and soil conservation projects. We have identified 8,925 seedlings in our community nurseries and have purchased 100,000 more from the organization, Double Harvest. Farmers will be temporarily employed to plant trees on deforested hillsides, increasing their income in the short-term while making a lasting impact on their greatest asset—the land. Additionally, 13 microwatersheds have been identified for soil conservation efforts.

Thanks to everyone who has made this project possible by donating to Plant With Purpose’s relief and recovery efforts. Because of you, families will have food to eat, jobs to support themselves, and land that will produce abundant fruit. We are grateful to join with the people of Haiti as they seek to recover and rebuild. To donate to our efforts Click Here.

Update on Plant With Purpose's Haiti Relief & Recovery Work

Dear Friends,

The situation in Haiti remains dire. As our valued partner, we want to make every effort to communicate our efforts with you. Our Technical Director Bob Morikawa is in Haiti right now and we have been working with him and Guy Paraison, the country director for Floresta-Haiti, to determine a short term and long term plan of action. One of the biggest issues is that people are in need of food. We have seen a 42% increase in the village populations, which means there are even more mouths to feed.

Due to severe road damage, big trucks are not able to access our area and bring food. Right now we are exploring partnerships with a number of agencies to solve this problem. In the meantime, we are going to be purchasing food locally and work on rebuilding the road. Another reason opening the road is a priority is that ripe produce such as avocados and cabbage are currently unable to reach the market and hungry people in Port au Prince. Thus the urgent emphasis on road building. Based on our assessments, it costs $25 to feed a family of 6 for 1 week. We need to raise a total of $296,800 to feed 2,800 families. Additionally, Floresta-Haiti will rent heavy road building equipment for one week to clear the worst sections of the road and allow large vehicle access. We estimate that this will cost $10,221.

We urge you to consider supporting our programs in Haiti to help feed the hungry and ultimately save lives. You can donate online at www.plantwithpurpose.org. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Scott Sabin

Executive Director of Plant With Purpose, a trademark of Floresta USA

Plant With Purpose Haiti Relief Efforts

Plant With Purpose is in a strategic position to utilize our experience, resources, and 42 national staff members to bring relief to rural Haitians. So what, exactly, are we doing?

Our Haitian staff is currently collecting data from our partner communities on fatalities, household damage, and migration from urban areas. They’ve also been making vital connections with community and religious leaders in some of the bigger cities in order to coordinate relief efforts, minimize duplication, and maximize the number of people we can help and lives we can save.

Distribution of food to areas outside Port au Prince is still insufficient, as heartbreaking news stories of food riots and starving children has made shockingly clear. Plant With Purpose is preparing to access food aid from various sources as it becomes available to distribute to households in need as soon as possible. Most of the aid efforts are centralized in Port au Prince as of now, so Plant With Purpose plans to extend food distribution to more remote areas, particularly those where we have established relationships.

Based on preliminary estimates, Plant With Purpose plans to provide the immediate food needs for 2,800 households for a period of four weeks in four target areas. For just $106, we can feed a family of six for four weeks.

One of the biggest challenges to food distribution is the lack of access to rural communities due to severe damage to major roads. Plant With Purpose has already organized 150 community members to manually repair major sections of the road that serves as the only access route to our main project area. Despite the progress, the road is still inaccessible to large commercial vehicles, preventing local products from getting to the urban centers (and hungry people) and hindering relief efforts.

Plant With Purpose will rent heavy road building equipment to clear the worst sections of the road and allow large vehicle access. This will allow farmers to transport their crops to Port au Prince as well as provide Plant With Purpose the means to reach desperate families in the remote areas with food aid.

By opening roads that will reach remote villages and providing food to families who have lost homes, income sources, and loved ones, Plant With Purpose will alleviate suffering, save lives, and assist Haiti on its long road to recovery.

To help Plant With Purpose feed a family of six for four weeks for just $106 or contribute to our overall relief efforts click here.