Hello friends!
In case you haven’t heard from us yet this year, Happy New Year!
It’s truly a privilege to be here writing to you in 2024. Today, we wanted to share a few things that are making us smile as the month of January rolls quickly on.
But first, have you seen our Impact Report? Reports can be boring, we won’t argue with you there, but this one is not. We promise.
You get to see some of the best photos of the year while seeing just how many women, children, and communities benefitted from your support this year.
Have a look for yourself!
Speaking of women and families, that brings us to the first thing putting a smile on our face this week.
The garden teams from both of our centers have been busy making trips into the field to see how mothers are fairing with vegetable growing efforts.
As it turns out, they are fairing very well! We enjoyed several days of rain in the month of December, which was a welcome weather phenomenon for these home gardeners.
Lunise and Dieudelaine (pictured above), are thrilled to be harvesting green, bell peppers and hot, scotch bonnet peppers from their gardens—to eat and to sell.
Edeline—pictured below—has been harvesting amaranth greens from her garden and will soon have more tomatoes than any one person can handle! She’s looking forward to selling, sharing, and enjoying the fruits of her labor.
The second thing making us smile this week?
These family photos.
Did you know that we visit the homes of every caregiver/child that spends time at our Malnutrition Treatment Centers?
It’s true.
Typically, a few days after a caregiver and child’s last day at the center, someone from our team heads to the caregiver’s home to meet the rest of the family. The purpose of this visit is three-fold. We want to know that they have a safe place to live, we want to find out who is a part of their supportive network, and we want to know where they will be doing business so that we can visit them again once their business is launched (and later to help them start a home garden).
Meeting the extended families of the caregivers and children that spend time at our center is a true joy.
Yesterday, we met Gena’s family.
Gena is mom to Kendaylie, a 10-month-old who was fighting Severe Acute Malnutrition at our Saint Raphaël campus during the last months of 2023.
We met Gena’s mom and brother, her cousins, and her mom’s two sisters (far left).
Gena’s husband is away from home, working in the Dominican Republic, but in his place, Gena has three strong women in her corner. Plus, she has a few young cousins to entertain and watch out for her daughter as she grows.
They are so pleased to see how healthy the baby of their family is today.
And that makes us smile!
Sending a little Haitian warmth your way today. ☀️
❤️ Love from Haiti