Hello from Cap Haitien, where we are safe and well despite the ongoing danger in other parts of Haiti.
The news is sobering, but with so much to be done, we’re holding our heads high and holding onto hope for this country we love so much.
Since we last wrote, our teams here in Cap Haitien and Saint-Raphael have been busy with two main priorities: 1) stocking up on supplies for and 2) tackling the problem of food insecurity the best way we know how.
If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know that we grow food on our campuses, keep fruit tree nurseries that we share from regularly, and that we help the mothers of children who have recently recovered from Malnutrition start garden collectives with their neighbors—sometimes travelling more than two hours by motorcycle to provide in-person support.
But this past week we turned our attention to the people living right here in the communities we call home.
On Monday & Tuesday, our agronomists and social workers left by bicycle and foot to meet with families in the communities where we work.
They came bearing gifts: spinach, tomato, pepper, & carrot seeds, plus watering cans and machetes to help community members tend to their young gardens.
But they didn’t just leave their gifts and ride off to the next home!
They stayed with every household offering manual support to form raised beds and get seeds in the ground.
This Tuesday, we turned our focus to the local school: Academie LEAD Haiti.
The school sits not more than 50 meters from our Cap Haitien Malnutrition Treatment Center. Currently, it’s a safe and well-equipped learning environment for 187 students, grades K-8.
After a few planning meetings with the school administrator (the man pictured in blue) we were ready for a hands on session with the students.
Before we arrived, students and teachers had emptied the school house of all its benches and chairs in order to create an open air classroom.
From there, Ange Marie, our lead agronomist, inspired children of all ages and every gender, to join in on the action.
After learning about the essential needs of a vegetable garden, the kids got to work breaking up the soil and forming raised beds…
Wetting the soil…
planting and covering the seeds…
and once more, watering the seeds with water from the hand pump of the school grounds.
We left the school grounds already anticipating our next visit. Being just a short walk away, we’ll back to the school regularly to work with smaller groups of students at all stages of the gardens growth.
There are more than 1 million people in Haiti facing famine levels of crisis and the effects of the crisis in Port-au-Prince is far-reaching. The suffering of those still in the midst of the violence is not far from our minds.
But this day was happy one—full of hope for the day when these kids will get to harvest nutritious foods for their school lunches and carry the surplus home to their families.
❤️ love from Haiti
