Food Source Creation in Les Anglais
An update from the community
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In the wake of the earthquakes, we reached out to our friends to help the community of Les Anglais prepare for potential food shortages resulting from an influx of people from Port-au-Prince and a reduction in the flow of goods to the community. The response was overwhelming! In only one week, we raised more than $6,500, which has been sent to our our partners in the community who are coordinating relief. Principle among these partners is Etienne Francois, of the Promise Partners Program. For years, Etienne, a trained agronomist, has been working to address hunger and unemployment through a variety of agriculturally-based programs. He has worked on behalf of organizations such as Heifer International and through the support of Our Saviors Luthern Church in Lake Oswego, Oregon. EWB's Les Anglais Project Manager, Carolyn Shapiro, spoke with Etienne on the phone on January 31st, 2010. Etienne provide this update on the use of relief funds in the community: |
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After learning of the quantity of money raised for this effort, Etienne initiated a discussion in the community regarding how to best start using these funds. There was broad agreement to do something that also engaged the young people who have recently returned from Port-au-Prince. Right now, these young people have nothing to do and no means of earning money in Les Anglais. In response, Etienne is organizing a Chicken Program for Les Anglais! This will provide some high quality food for the short-term, but also a means to get young people working for their community. They are sourcing materials for coops and also the best place to buy the chickens and seed. Fortunately Etienne is well-connected when it comes to getting animals to Les Anglais. He estimates that there are 200 young people he can put to work with the chicken program.
We see this as aligning beautifully with our EWB objective of providing sustainable solutions to pressing needs. Etienne promises to send us updates and photos of their progress which will be posted here. Our travel team will have another item on their agenda when they get to Les Anglais--checking on the new chickens! Thanks again to all of you for supporting our program and supporting our partner community in Haiti. This feels like a spot of sunshine after so much sorrowful news out of Haiti.
Note: Because of increased wire fees to Haiti, as of February 1st we are no longer accepting donations for this effort. If you would like to support other food source creation projects in Haiti (like Etienne's chicken program), we encourage you to consider Heifer International. We are also continuing to accept donations to EWB to support our water and santitation program in the community.
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