belladere, haiti€¦ · participation of canadian partner teams artex & den-bow. community...

1 HAITI | 2019 MID YEAR REPORTFOOD FOR THE HUNGRY CANADA

PREPARED BY

FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY (FH) HAITI

& FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY (FH) CANADA

BELLADERE, HAITICACHIMAN & MATEGOUASSE

CHILD FOCUSED COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION 2019 MID YEAR PROGRESS REPORT

Photo by Shawn Sheridan


INTRODUCTION

Food for the Hungry (FH) walks with more than 550 families

in the communities of Cachiman and Mategouasse on their

journey out of poverty through a multi-year development

initiative called Child Focused Community Transformation

(CFCT). The main purpose of the program in Haiti is to give

families in these two communities the hope, resources, and

support they need to care for the most vulnerable mem-

bers of their community, especially children. FH works to

respond to the greatest needs in the community: food inse-

curity, high maternal and child mortality rate, high level of

gender based violence and child abuse, and low literacy

rate. Integrated activities in education, health, livelihoods,

and leadership training seek to empower community mem-

bers to identify and address their priority needs, create

economic opportunities for families to generate income,

build assets, and promote healthy behaviours including the

practice of basic preventative care.

FH is pleased to see how effectively the pay-it-forward sys-

tem is working in Haiti. Many families received livestock in

this reporting period from neighbours who received their

initial animals from FH. In this way, community members

are participating in their development in a truly sustaina-

ble way.

FH continues to work with leaders to nurture their commu-

nities’ sense of ownership. A general hand-out mentality

has been caused by decades of well-intended charity that

often “does for” rather than “walks with”. Multiple lead-

ership trainings this reporting period were well attended,

and we have hope that this generation of leaders will rise

up to take ownership of their development journey and

make their communities truly sustainable.

The FH farming demonstration centre and plots in Mategouasse, which hosts regular training events for farming familes.


EDUCATION

FH facilitated a training for 20 primary school teachers

from several schools in Mategouasse and Cachiman to

strengthen their lesson planning and teaching skills.

The workshop was conducted by an inspector from Hai-

ti’s Ministry of Education.

The new Mategouasse school offered three grades this

year: Kindergarten, Grade 1, and a special class for

older children (ages nine to 14). The school is follow-

ing a gradual opening plan, adding one grade each

year so that all children attending the school will have

had the advantage of their teaching from the start.

This puts all the students on equal footing and enables

the teachers to follow the curriculum without having

to make major adaptations. The entrance road to the

school, which has been an issue since before the start

of construction, is still not addressed. FH continues to

raise the issue with local authorities and, although they

have promised to fix it, still nothing has been done.

FH organizes quarterly capacity building meetings for

Apacienta mis Ovejas (AMO, “Feed my Sheep”) club

monitors. These meetings ensure adequate use of AMO

curriculum and address gaps identified during super-

vision of AMO clubs. Two meetings and two capaci-

ty building trainings were held this reporting period.

Through these meetings FH learns about different chal-

lenges the monitors face and hear about how the AMO

program influences the lives of children. There are

four thriving AMO groups across Cachiman and Mat-

egouasse with approximately 80 children in total.

Forty students from the Cachiman National School

were selected to be trained by FH on how to raise and

transplant fruit trees. The school has granted space on

which to establish a tree nursery. A lot of work has al-

ready been accomplished by the students during train-

ing: Soil preparation, seedbed preparation, and filling

bags with soil.

Students working together at the tree nursery, learning about plant care, soil erosion, and more.

Students visit the tree nursery.


Since 2014, FH has been actively involved in training

and supporting Cascade group Leader Mothers to

conduct health promotion and illness identification

for families in Cachiman and Mategouasse. The pro-

gram delivers health education to pregnant women

and mothers of children under five to empower and

equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary

to take responsibility for the survival, care, protec-

tion, and optimum development of their children.

During the past six months, five groups (two in Ca-

chiman, three in Mategouasse) received training in

exclusive breastfeeding, nutrition for pregnant and

lactating mothers, nutrition of children six to 59

months, prevention of malnutrition and diarrhoea,

environmental hygiene, children’s skin hygiene,

acute respiratory infections, HIV prevention, family

planning, the importance of vitamin A, regular de-

worming, and taking pre-natal multivitamins. All of

these training sessions were conducted by field facil-

itators and community health agents on a bi-month-

ly basis reaching 72 Leader Mothers in five Cascade

groups affecting change in 490 households (224 in

Cachiman, 266 in Mategouasse).

FH staff continue to make follow-up visits to the 89

Model Home families (69 in Cachiman, 20 in Mat-

egouasse) to ensure they continue to respect all the

requirements for being a Model Home including en-

vironmental hygiene, handwashing, and water treat-

ment, among others. FH is training an additional 20

families to become model homes. These families just

received cement, iron, and metal sheeting from FH to

complete their latrines.

Two mobile clinics, one in each community were or-

ganized over the past six months. These mobile clin-

ics allowed the people from the communities to ac-

cess medical care and free medicine within a very

short distance walk. A total of 430 patients, adults

and children, received consultations. Twenty medical

examinations were performed, in particular for RPR

(syphilis) and HIV; medicines were provided free of

charge.

HEALTH

A health lesson on water filtration is given for a host of community members.

A cascade group show their health lesson flip charts, a key tool when sharing lessons with their neighbours.


FH continues to provide technical support to Savings and

Loans groups in Cachiman and Mategouasse. Two new

groups (one in Mategouasse, one in Cachiman) were es-

tablished, regaining some ground from the four groups

that permanently closed last year.

As rural communities, much of Mategouasse’s and Ca-

chiman’s livelihood opportunities arise from agriculture.

As such, FH aims to improve the production, consumption,

and sale of nutrient-rich food among smallholder farmers.

FH trains Lead Farmers on innovative, sustainable, and en-

vironmentally friendly farming techniques. They then share

their knowledge with neighbours. FH also utilizes a Farmer

Field School where farmers gather to observe, learn, and

practice how to improve their production.

FH continued to train two field facilitators who will teach

other farmers. Together with the agriculture technician,

they will conduct follow-up visits to Lead Farmers and oth-

er local farmers. Training this reporting period focused

on enhancing crop and livestock health and preventing

weeds, pests, and diseases without the use of chemical

substances. Other techniques included timing and density

of planting, irrigation, and how to select the best plant

varieties and planting sites.

A farmer tends to his family’s kitchen garden – while he grows cash crops, this garden boosts the variety of veggies his children can eat.

LIVELIHOODS

Seed distribution in Mategouasse.

SAVINGS & LOANS GROUPS IN CACHIMAN & MATEGOUASSE, AS AT MARCH 30, 2019

Group Name Community # of MembersAmount Saved

(CAD)Loans Given

(CAD)# of People

Receiving Loan

Men nan men poun vanse Cachiman 10 $25 $0 0

Nap met tet ansanm pounn fe travay la Cachiman 23 $213 $201 12

Yon ede lot poun ka rive Cachiman 33 $522 $208 9

Flambwayan Cachiman 28 $767 $115 3

Espwa diven Mategouasse 20 $644 $194 16

Kole zepol Mategouasse 20 $871 $748 15

Ambasade Cachiman 37 $1,567 $144 4

Je nan Je Cachiman 38 $1,778 $518 7

Tet ansanm Mategouasse 19 $319 $237 5

Solide (NEW) Mategouasse 39 $756 $748 10

Ansanm nou fo (NEW) Cachiman 22 -- IN TRAINING --

TOTAL 289 $7,462 $3,113 81


Six training sessions were conducted with 17 Lead Farmers

at the Mategouasse Farmer Training Centre. As a result of

the new techniques they’re learning, many local farmers

no longer have to waste their money buying herbicides

and pesticides to protect their crops.

Keyhole gardens help families improve the variety, quan-

tity, and availability of fresh vegetables. Six new gardens

were started this period and 15 existing keyhole gardens

were rehabilitated or rebuilt.

After conducting two training sessions, FH distributed 25

lbs of black bean or peanut seeds to each of the 102 par-

ticipating farmers (42 in Cachiman, 60 in Mategouasse).

Recipients are expected to pay-it-forward by donating a

portion of their first seed harvest to another farmer in the

community. FH visited recipients’ fields to ensure they had

the appropriate land and are pleased that all participat-

ing farmers have successfully planted.

Two Farmer Field Schools, one in Cachiman and one in

Mategouasse, were established exclusively with the seed

recipients. Each group has 25 farmers who will study the

production of black beans from seed to seed. The groups

will meet once a week under the supervision of both a fa-

cilitator and the agriculture technician.

FH distributed goats to 100 households (40 in Cachiman,

60 in Mategouasse). In this reporting period, 14 new fam-

ilies received goats through the pay-it-forward system,

as well as training on how to best care for their livestock.

FH facilitated a veterinary clinic in Mategouasse with the

participation of Canadian partner teams Artex & Den-

bow. Community members brought a total of 208 livestock

(cows, pigs, goats) to be vaccinated or de-wormed free of

charge. Treatment was administered by volunteer commu-

nity animal health workers under the supervision of a Vet

technician. Such clinics will be conducted in both commu-

nities once a year.

LIVELIHOOD SUMMARY AS AT MARCH 30, 2019

ACTIVITY Cachiman Mategouasse TOTAL

Lead Farmers trained 0 17 17

Trainings for Lead Farmers

0 6 6

Keyhole Gardens constructed

2 4 6

Keyhole Gardens rehabilitated or rebuilt

8 7 15

Households that received a goat via FH

40 60 100

Housedholds that received a goat via the Pay-It-Forward model

6 8 14

Animals vaccinated or dewormed

0 208 208

Households that received seeds via FH

42 60 102

Visits to farmers by FH staff

15 21 36

Students trained in tree nursery

40 0 40

Training session with veterinary agents, to recap core practices, common treatments, and exchange notes.

Goat distribution in Cachiman (above) and Mategouasse (below).


Achieving sustained headway in building strong,

reliable, effective leaders has been a significant

challenge. The Haitian culture with years of NGO

handouts and rampant corruption has been very

difficult to break through.

This reporting period, leadership specialists or field

facilitators conducted six meetings with Community

Development Committees (CDCs) in Cachiman and

Mategouasse. Early in the next quarter, FH will

organize cross-site visits for both these CDCs. They

will travel to Port-au-Prince to visit leadership teams

from other communities. Through information sharing,

this encounter will provide an effective learning

environment where groups can mine each other’s

wisdom for creative solutions to their own problems.

In the reporting period, FH conducted two training

sessions for pastors and lay leaders focused on

Christian leadership, learning ways to develop Christ-

like characteristics. About 40 pastors, church leaders,

and other community leaders participated in the

training.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Leaders often discuss values associated with practical skills.


During Junia’s early years, Cachiman was a rural

community still very much struggling to get out of

poverty. Born into a family with six children, Junia

felt the sting of not having quite enough to go

around. And the scarcity shaped her personality.

She was withdrawn and prone to anger. She re-

sented the poverty in Cachiman and believed the

lies that the grass was greener in Haiti’s cities.

Attending AMO, an FH kids club, changed her per-

spective at just the right time – at 14-years-old she

is still young, still forming her identity.

“AMO has changed my life!” Junia joyfully ex-

claims. “In AMO, I am always told about God. As

God is love and I love Him, I tried to follow His

words and that transformed my life. For example,

I became friendly, I have a better appreciation for

my classmates, my neighbours, and even my sis-

ters,” she admits. “I have learned to respect oth-

ers’ opinions and I have become more obedient to

my parents.”

It’s obvious she’s had a real change of heart and

behaviour. She loves school and tries hard. Junia’s

new attitude has had a huge impact on her sisters

who have already started to follow her lead. And

her parents appreciate it, too.

Because of poverty, Junia always doubted that she

had a good future. She didn’t think she was worthy

of one. But AMO helped her see the world and her-

self in a new light, in God’s light.

“I realized that I was completely wrong,” Junia

shares. “Now, I believe that I have as bright a fu-

ture as any other person. I believe it because, ac-

cording to the Bible, all people are created equal

and we are created in the image and likeness of

God. And God has a plan for everyone, no mat-

ter where he or she is from. That’s why I keep on

studying hard at school. I can’t wait to see what

God has in store for me, my sisters, and even my

community.”

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT

Discovering She’s Worthy

THANK YOUYour generosity is a cornerstone for the transformative work taking place in Chachiman and Mategouasse. Food for the Hungry (FH) Canada, along with FH Haiti and the families of Cachiman and Mategouasse thank you for your faithfulness alongside their development journey!

“Now, I believe that I have as bright a future as any other person.”

belladere, haiti€¦ · participation of canadian partner teams artex & den-bow. community...

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