Haiti

In a fishing village in Haiti, Haitians travel out to the lake twice a day to feed the fish they have in these cages.  The fish are raised and then sold at market, creating a self-sustaining village.

Although happy, the disparity between the girls and the boys in this village still remains.  Haitian kids can only go to school if they have shoes and uniforms.  The boys can go to school because they have been donated shoes, but the girls still need shoes to go to school.

These villagers were told that if they dug until they found water, that they would get a filtration system and a pump for the well to have running water.  These villagers dug this 53 foot hole with a shovel , a bucket and a rope.  One person would climb into the hole and hang on a rope held by others, and use a shovel to dig the dirt, which was sent up bucket by bucket.  With the money raised by our group and through Food for the Poor's assistance, these villagers will have the pump and system next week.  I was impressed by the dedication that this village showed to helping themselves, with just a little assistance from others.

At the Food for the Poor feeding center in Port-au-Prince, people can now come and fill up their buckets with water.

Our group -me (Amanda Farahany), Sheryl McCalla and Ed Buckley fill a bucket of water at an artesian well.  Kids are sent here daily to get water to take to their homes and families.

In Vialet, the community works together to raise the children and create a better life for them.

In this village, led by a strong woman leader, the villagers are raising trees to plant on the side of the mountain to stop the erosion.  In the past, Haitians have deforested the countryside, and with 100,000 trees (seeds donated by Food for the Poor), the mountainside will once again have trees covering and stop the flooding into the village.