Looking Back: Three Years Later

Tomorrow is the day that marks three years since the earthquake shook the ground we walk on and forever changed the face of Haiti.  While it is much easier to look at the stumbles, falls and steps backwards that have been taken since the earthquake, I am thinking differently.  I am thinking instead about cumulative gain.

In spite of it all, when I look at the Lambi Fund of Haiti’s programs and talk with Lambi Fund’s program partners, I see progress and I see hope.

I see an organization that has more than doubled its projects since 2010.  I see communities that have transformed the way they care for their environment.  I see farmers growing more food and I see small merchants increasing their incomes and providing for their families.

In the past three years, Lambi Fund has worked hand-in-hand with 32 grassroots organizations and over 6,100 members throughout Haiti to provide them with not only the tools and resources they need to get back on their feet, but to help build a solid foundation for years to come.  

When you take the time to zoom in and look at specific communities and families, you will find substantial efforts that indicate change is coming.  Since the earthquake:

• Three grain mills have been built that are providing entire communities with low-cost and high-quality milling services.  These mills have become commercial centers in their communities and 708 members of local organizations are working to manage and maintain the mills so that they are open for years to come.
• Five ox-plow services have been launched that are plowing more land and increasing crop outputs - benefiting 276 members and numerous farmers in their communities.
• Five goat breeding projects are being managed by 900 organization members who built pens, fenced in grazing areas, and learned how to breed the animals for a reliable source of income.
• 634 members built three grain storage and seed banks that are allowing communities to store grains for the offseason and to sell local and organic seeds to farmers.
• 17 community credit funds have been created impacting more than 2,200 members.  These locally managed funds are providing low-interest loans to rural Haitians so that they can invest in small-business enterprises and purchase more seeds and tools so that they can grow more food.
• One tool bank was established providing 50 members and nearby locals with access to tools needed for farmers to work their fields more efficiently.
• 44 members worked with Lambi Fund to launch one sheep breeding enterprise, which is allowing families to steadily increase their incomes.
• In partnership with Lambi Fund, 89 members built and are managing a sugar cane mill that is transforming abundant sugarcane crops into more lucrative sugarcane syrup.
• Three coffee cooperatives are enabling 1,548 members to grow more coffee and to process the beans into market-ready coffee.
• 32 grassroots organizations have worked with Lambi Fund to build community-led nurseries and have planted hundreds of thousands of tree seedlings throughout Haiti’s countryside.
• One irrigation canal is providing 150 farmers in an arid region of the country with a consistent source of water for their crops.

Despite these incredible triumphs, our work is by no means finished.  Everyone at Lambi Fund is looking forward to 2013 with newfound determination.  While we believe the tangible outcomes of these projects like increased incomes are important, it is the strengthening coalition of grassroots organizations that is slowly changing the tide.  Entire communities are seeing that they have the capacity, know-how and will to successfully manage community-led enterprises.   Through this, Haitians are realizing that, together, anything is possible. 

And with that, I leave you with this call to action in 2013: may we work harder, come together more than ever before and strive to build a Haiti that is just, fair and rich in love.  Let us do this in the name and remembrance of all loved ones lost on that fateful day on January 12, 2010.

Onward,

Marie Marthe Saint Cyr

Executive Director

The Lambi Fund of Haiti

Hurricane Sandy Update

   

     As you are well aware, Hurricane Sandy barreled through the Caribbean and Eastern coast of the United States and wrought extraordinary damage.  Millions of families and many of you, I am sure, are looking to pick up the pieces from this powerful super storm.  Those living in Haiti are no different. 

Photo by: EFE
Flooding in Haiti from Hurricane Sandy

     Over the course of four days, Haiti received over 20 inches of rainfall, which inundated communities with massive amounts of water and debris.  The Lambi Fund of Haiti is now in the process of contacting partner organizations to assess damage and losses.  Initial estimates calculate that thousands of acres of crops in Southern Haiti have been washed away and large numbers of livestock have been lost. 

     

     For impoverished families in Haiti still struggling to recover from the earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Isaac in August, this news is just devastating.  These crops are the very essence of rural Haitian’s livelihoods  and the rammifications of this storm could spell widespread starvation. 

     Please take urgent action to help rural communities throughout Haiti pick themselves up and get back on their feet again.  It is during trying times like these that even a little can go a long way.  Donate now and you will help:

• Purchase local seeds so small farmers can replant their crops
• Provide the resources needed for community organizations to replenish local grain reserves
• Replace livestock like goats, pigs and sheep that were lost in the storm
• Contribute to community-led efforts to clean up debris, fallen trees, and destroyed roads in towns throughout Haiti
• Replenish community credit funds which provide local  members with valuable access to capital so that they can purchase life essentials like food and water

Its efforts like these that will lessen the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on impoverished Haitians.  Together we can help clean up the wreckage, replant crops and move forward.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by Hurricane Sandy.  

May your recovery be swift,

Marie Marthe Saint Cyr

Executive Director

The Lambi Fund of Haiti

A Bottom-Up Transformation

BY: Leonie Hermantin

In August 2008, while working in Haiti's upper Artibonite region, I visited the village of Rivye Blanch as the deputy director of the Lambi Fund of Haiti, which supports the community's sustainable economic development and reforestation projects. The people of Rivye Blanch, represented by their leader, requested that I convey their message of support to then candidate Barack Obama.
``When you go back to the other side of the water,'' said Eddy, president of the Association of Peasants from Rivye Blanch, ``please tell Barack Obama that the people of Haiti support his candidacy. Please tell him that his victory will also be ours.''
Last week, I attended a special ceremony organized by President Obama at the White House in honor of President René Préval's visit to Washington. As Obama pledged his country's support for Haiti's reconstruction, I could not stop thinking about Eddy and the people of Rivye Blanch. I wish that Eddy could have heard Obama speak of his strong commitment to Haiti and to the Haitian people.
I would have also loved to see Eddy's reaction to President Préval's inclusion of ``decentralization'' in his government's list of priorities for a new Haiti. According to Préval, the government plans to rebuild Haiti through the decentralization of major institutions by providing basic services such as healthcare and education to areas where about 60 percent of the Haitian people live.
Eddy and the people of Rivye Blanch would have been pleased to know that such plans were on the drawing board, but their reaction would be one of guarded optimism. They have heard these promises before, in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters; promises that quickly evaporated when the funds were extended elsewhere and the attention of the world waned.
The people of Haiti, both rural and urban, understand that it can no longer be ``more of the same.'' But as the Haitian government and the international community are poised to discuss plans for reconstruction the voice of the majority has been muted. While we have heard from the Haitian government, the international community and Haiti's business interests, we have not heard from the people themselves in an organized and coherent manner.
In order to address this gap, the Lambi Fund convened regional assemblies of dozens of Haitian grassroots organizations to define and prioritize rebuilding needs. They focused in their conversations on how to sustain the needs for the mid- and long-term to rebuild and strengthen Haiti.
In their statement about the reconstruction process, peasant leaders asserted that Haiti was a sovereign nation and that the vision and articulation of a new Haiti should come from the Haitian people themselves. They also proposed that the government make decentralization a priority by ensuring through investments that cities and towns in the provinces and rural communities become vital centers for national productivity.
Moreover, grassroots leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the environment, acknowledging that deforestation represents one of the greatest threats to Haiti's food security. Pointing to international relief strategies, they asserted that some of the activities adopted by the international community are threatening to disrupt the local economy if they continue to plan relief under the assumption that goods must be imported.
The earthquake, they argue, offers a unique opportunity for the international community to work in partnership with Haitian peasants to increase their capacity to feed the country and support the local economy.
If President Obama had the opportunity to speak to Eddy and to the people of Rivye Blanch, they would have reminded him that supporting Haiti's successful bottom-up transformation would be one of his most memorable legacies. Haiti's victory would also be his.

Leonie Hermantin is deputy director of the Lambi Fund of Haiti. She lives in Miami. You may contact her at Leonie@lambifund.org

Lambi Fund Update: A Path to Recovery in Haiti

The days following the earthquake were a busy and stressful time for Lambi Fund. Contacting staff and partner organizations proved to be a difficult task given the lack of phone service, power, internet and destruction of major roads to rural communities.

On January 16, 2010 staff in the US finally heard from Lambi Fund’s country director in Haiti. While staff in Haiti have been struggling to survive in a city that has been demolished, we here overjoyed to hear that all Lambi Fund staff members were alive and suffered relatively minor injuries.

January 18, 2010: Lambi Fund Country Director Josette Perard finally made it through the debris and checkpoints to our office space located in downtown Port-au-Prince. It sustained damages but is still standing! Important documents and equipment were salvaged for the time being as it lacked electricity needed for the office to be functional.

January 19-24, 2010: Staff have been working out of our Field Coordinator’s house; one of the few houses still standing that has electricity. Lambi Fund’s office building is being used as shelter for those that have been displaced.

Several Lambi Fund led regional meetings have convened in rural communities outside, under trees throughout Haiti. These communities are currently experiencing tremendous rates of outmigration that are severely stressing already limited resources. The 1,000’s of refugees streaming into these villages daily desperately need immediate relief. As such our local partner organizations and Lambi Fund have begun distributing major essentials like food, water and medical supplies to displaced persons. Shelters are in the process of being built as well.

January 25, 2010: Staff finally managed to purchase gas for Lambi Fund’s generator. The office has electricity, is up and running and is fully operational! Continued discussions with grassroots organizations in rural communities have led to the development of a four-phase recovery plan that will be critical in Haiti’s long-term recovery:

1. Distribute food and emergency essentials to those migrating from Port-au-Prince to rural areas.

2. Repair damage in rural communities
3. Expand sustainable agriculture programs to meet the increased demand for food in rural areas
4. Increase opportunities for sustainable income for those displaced by the earthquake so that the influx of people migrating to countryside can start earning sustainable livelihoods

Play a major role in expanding resources, rebuilding, and providing refugees with the means for economic livelihoods in rural communities by supporting this important long-term recovery program in Haiti today.