Thank you for your generous support of Canadian Foodgrains Bank projects around the world through Grains of Hope. We want to share with you some of the exciting ways your support is making a positive difference in Haiti.
Highlights
With the ongoing support of donors like you, MCC and Canadian Foodgrains Bank were able to support kids clubs that focus on environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture that is so important to the future of countries like Haiti. This project equips a network of kids clubs that help pass these lessons, values, and techniques on to the next generation, thus helping these children become agents of change in their own homes and communities. In this photo (from left) Louie Vivra, Melise Michaline and Karin Florvil, participants in the Wopisa, Haiti kids club, plant a breadfruit tree in a demonstration garden.
Seedbanks provided through MCC’s partners in Haiti are one of the key opportunities for farmers to safely and securely preserve their harvest so they can plant again when the rains come. Your compassionate gifts to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank matching program, through Grains of Hope, allows participants like Jenious Lena and her husband, Louine, Jywasian to maintain a sustainable livelihood.
Agroforestry techniques are providing a food pantry of sorts for these communities, with the idea that each farmer could go into their garden at any time throughout the year and pick something to eat, thus preventing malnutrition and hunger.
Your support also benefits 22 community tree nurseries, which will produce and distribute over two million seedlings in an effort to improve food security for vulnerable families. As these seedlings grow, the reforested areas become more fertile and productive.
Because of this work, 17,300 small-scale farmers are learning how to manage micro-forests of high value trees that can be used for fuel or lumber in the future.
In addition, farmers are receiving fruit trees, which lead to increased food consumption and income for their families.
Not only is the local environment improving through this work, but also regular sustainable harvests of trees, fruit and agricultural products are enabling farmers to provide for their families.
And in Kabay, Haiti, 200 farmers are receiving training in farm co-op and seedbank management. With your support, MCCO has worked with partners to construct a depot with a concrete platform to be used for drying crops. They’ve also purchased and installed seven metal grain silos to store seed to be used by the community in the next growing season. Along with these new resources, farmers have also been given fencing, tools, corn, sorghum, pigeon pea seeds and tree seedlings to support the growth of sustainable agriculture in their community.
Thank you for partnering with Mennonite Central Committee Ontario and Canadian Food Grains Bank in assisting Haitian people with food security.
Photos by MCC / Paul Shetler Fast
