Meet US Board Member for the Lambi Fund of Haiti: Marie Marthe St.Cyr

The Lambi Fund of Haiti's Board President, Marie Marthe St. Cyr sat down with us to discuss how and why Lambi Fund is an agent of change in Haiti.

Watch what she has to say!

Lambi Fund Releases its 2009 Annual Report

23 September 2010- The Lambi Fund of Haiti's 2009 Annual Report is finally here!  2009 was a very busy year for Lambi Fund as 12 new projects began and over 50,000 individuals were impacted.  Continued work in over 30 communities on 20 sustainable development projects throughout Haiti focused on the following program initiatives:

- Sustainable Agriculture

- Community Microcredit

- Animal Husbandry

- Environment

- Organizational and Leadership Training

The Lambi Fund of Haiti's 'Million Tree Campaign' is building momentum as over 300,000 fruit and forest trees were planted throughout Haiti in community-led reforestation efforts.  Lambi Fund held four regional conferences on sustainable agriculture, gender equity and leadership training.  These workshops represented an important opportunity to provide peasant leaders with the tools needed to effectively impact change in their communities.

From everyone here at Lambi Fund, 2009 was a truly inspirational year.  Work with organized communities, effective grassroots groups, and empowered men and women throughout rural Haiti continue to be the driving force behind our work.  Please take the time to read Lambi Fund's 2009 Annual Report (also available in a PDF file) as I'm sure you will find our annual breakdown to be an engaging read.  The Annual Report provides you with a breakdown of all of Lambi Fund's new projects in 2009, examples of holistic approaches to community development, financial reports and how organizational and leadership training is changing the face of Haiti.

Most importantly: a VERY big thank you to all of our supporters in 2009....grassroots change comes from engaged individuals like YOU. 

Mesi, mesi!

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti

By: Edwidge Danticat

Illustrated by: Alix Delinois

Renowned Haitian author, Edwidge Danticat's newest novel Eight Days: A Story of Haiti is out now. Her newest book tells the story of an eight year old boy named

Junior stuck in the rumble after Haiti's January 2010 earthquake. Upon being rescued, he tells his rescuers what he did for each of those eight days.

This is a beautiful story of healing, survival and hope in Haiti. As Ms. Danticat tells the story through a child's eyes, she shows the true strength and spirit of Haiti.

Edwidge Danticat has generously agreed to donate a portion of all book sales to the Lambi Fund of Haiti to support rebuilding after the earthquake. Get your copy now!

Wave for Change....Really Brings Change!

Neutrogena's Wave for Change campaign came to a close last week and proudly announced that with the help of thousands of teens across America, the campaign achieved

its goal of raising $200,000. The Wave for Change campaign empowered teenagers to support the cause of their choice on Neutrogena's facebook page.

For every Oil-Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefr

uit product and Wave Sonic Power Cleanser sold, Neutrogena agreed to donate $1. Based on a quiz that participants took on Neutrogena's facebook, the Lambi Fund of Haiti will receive 23% of the funding! In all, Neutrogena's Wave for Change will donate $41,400 to the Lambi Fund of Haiti to support earthquake rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

This is a landmark moment in that, teenagers took charge and played an important role in impacting positive social change. Thanks to the thousands of teenagers who participated, Neutrogena, and Global Giving- countless earthquake survivors will be empowered to rebuild their lives.

To read more about the Lambi Fund of Haiti visit www.lambifund.org.

For earthquake rebuilding updates and progress click here.

Follow Lambi Fund on Facebook or Twitter.

Meet US Board Member for the Lambi Fund of Haiti: Jay Schoenberger

Not too long ago, we had a chance to sit down and talk with Jay Schoenberger, US Board Member of the Lambi Fund of Haiti. He told us why he is so passionate about working with Lambi Fund and how Lambi Fund's grassroots model is so effective. Jay stressed that partnerships with local Haitian peasant organizations empower entire communities and spark genuine change.

Watch the video to see what Jay has to say!

Visit www.lambifund.org for more information.

Follow Lambi Fund on Facebook and Twitter today.

See more of Lambi Fund's videos on YouTube.

Wave for Change!

Just days ago, Neutrogena announced an exciting new campaign that empowers teens to make a "Wave for Change" and the Lambi Fund of Haiti is proud to be a part! Brand Ambassadors Vanessa Hudgens and Hayden Panattiere kicked off the campaign stating, "Often people want to participate, but they don't know how so the fact Neutrogena is opening the door and kids are getting to be a part of something and help the world is an amazing thing to be a part of."

Now until August 23rd, you can visit Neutrogena's Facebook page and take a quiz to help the company determine how to distribute up to $200,000 to eligible GlobalGiving partners (we're one of them!). $1 will be donated for each Wave Sonic Power Cleanser and Oil-Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefruit purchased.

Once you 'like' Neutrogena's Facebook page, you can read a featured Lambi Fund story and see Lambi Fund photos. Pretty neat stuff! Be sure to check it out.

Six Months Later: An Update on Quake Recovery

Monday marked the six month anniversary since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12. By now stories of immense loss and unimaginable damage are well known. Over $8 billion has been pledged in international relief, yet rebuilding continues to be slow. Hundreds of thousands of people still live in tent cities and rubble litters the street. At first glance, it may appear that little or no progress is being made, yet the Lambi Fund of Haiti's unprecedented partnerships with local grassroots organizations throughout Haiti have been yielding significant results for thousands of earthquake survivors.

Support Local Economy

In the immediate weeks following the earthquake, the Lambi Fund activated its key partnerships with local peasant organizations. After convening regional meetings with local grassroots leaders to determine recovery priorities, Lambi Fund disbursed over $700,000 to 43 community organizations. As you can see in the photo on the right, Lambi Fund partner organizations were able to quickly and efficiently distribute emergency recovery funds to its members.

These funds supported the local economy when communities purchased needed essentials like locally grown food, clothing, and medical supplies, as well as seeds and tools for local farmers. Women's organizations were able to protect and advocate for women, whose vulnerability increased in the tent cities.

Helping Rural Communities

Over a half million earthquake survivors who lost everything, fled the city and streamed into rural communities to live with friends and family. Emergency funds to these community organizations helped them survive the disaster.

Ostazia Ogusrten, a beneficiary of the earthquake recovery program, has 10 children and lives in northwest Haiti with her husband. She explained, "After the Jan. 12 earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince, our household increased by another 10 people. It is thanks to my community organization and the Lambi Fund of Haiti that we got the relief we so desperately needed. Thank you. Thank you VERY much."

Focus on Rebuilding is Critical
At the six month milestone, it is important to look forward towards Haiti's future. Much work is left to be done and the Lambi Fund of Haiti continues to urge that rebuilding include all members of Haitian society, as well as the promotion of local business enterprises and the strengthening of civil society. To learn more about Lambi Fund's long term rebuilding priorities, click here.

True to Our Mission
The Lambi Fund of Haiti was founded in 1994 by Haitians and North Americans. Its mission is to assist the popular democratic movement in Haiti. The Lambi Fund provides financial resources, training and technical assistance that promotes the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people.

Please visit our website at www.lambifund.org

Click here to donate to Lambi Fund of Haiti

Always Organic, Always Local

In light of Monsanto's recent $4 million donation in seeds to Haiti, many are asking whether or not the Lambi Fund of Haiti uses GMO seeds.

Lambi Fund uses only organic seeds that are indigenous to Haiti. In efforts to increase agriculture sustainability, Lambi

Fund works with local farmers to teach organic farming methods that improve crop outputs and protect the environment. In fact, Lambi Fund is proud to partner with thousands of peasant farmers throughout Haiti who promote sustainable agriculture in Haiti through the use of seed banks. Seed banks allow Haitian communities to plant high-quality, inexpensive seeds year after year.

Providing Haitians with seeds for a seed bank and sustainable, organic agriculture training empowers farmers to feed Haitian communities themselves.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti, does not and will not use GMO or hybrid seeds from Monsanto or any other similar corporation. All of Lambi Fund's agriculture programs will continue in partnership with local Haitian farmers' organizations and in promotion of local, indigenous seeds.

Support the use of local seed banks in Haiti now.

Honor Your Father this Father's Day with the Gift of Seeds in Haiti

The days are longer, nights warmer and summer is here! This year Father's Day is June 20th- an especially important day for everyone at the Lambi Fund of Haiti. It's a day to honor all of the strong fathers, grandfathers and men in our lives.

Since the earthquake, Lambi Fund has worked hand-in-hand with 1,000's of great fathers who have selflessly opened up their homes, provided food, water and what little clothing they could to earthquake survivors in need. This daily display of resilience and humble generosity has been a constant inspiration to Lambi Fund.

Honor the special men in your life with the gift of helping fathers throughout Haiti rebuild their country. Take the 1,260 farmers from 42 peasant organizations who are working with Lambi Fund to plant more crops and increase crop outputs.

You can support these farmers by providing organic seeds, starting a community tool bank, or by purchasing an ox-plow. Each and every one of these gifts is accompanied with training on improved farming methods that preserve the environment and increase crop yields. It's a 2-for-1 deal!

Show Dad you care an purchase one of these gifts in his honor. Don't forget to print out his tribute certificate and Lambi Fund Father's Day card (available in English and Kreyol).

To our Fathers,

Karen Ashmore

Executive Director of the Lambi Fund of Haiti

P.S. Complete the gift with a Lambi Fund t-shirt, coffee mug, or hoodie from the Lambi Store

mbi Store

Haitian Women Play a Central Role in Haitian Agriculture/Support Haitian Peasant-Led Projects, Support the Lambi Fund

By special guest blogger: Ezili Danto

Haitian women play a central role in Haitian agriculture

For more info, go to - The Lambi Fund supports projects run by women. The Lambi Fund supports Haiti peasant-led agricultural projects. (Overview of Lambi Fund Programs.).

30 years ago, Haiti grew all the rice it needed. Recently, former President Clinton apologized for forcing corporate agribusiness subsidies on defenseless Haiti during his term in office. This destroyed Haiti's rice production and forced Haiti to now import more than 80% of its food, leading to Clorox hunger, starvation, despair and death, not to mention overcrowding in Port au Prince when peasants where forced off their land in search for sweatshop jobs in the capital. Yet, today, under the rubric of "Haiti Relief", USAID is pushing corporate seeds on Haiti. This new twist to agricultural dependency will not help Haiti. Monsanto, through USAID's WINNER program has tied itself to the money pool for corporate fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides required to plant its corporate seeds. This is not a gift but a large biotech company entering the false benevolence game of USAID in the name of 300,000 dead earthquake victims. Corporate seeds are not sustainable development for Haitian women in Haiti. Solidarity with Haiti would mean USAID would stop using raised funds to purchase foreign subsidized rice, dump it into Haiti destroying Haiti's agriculture; would stop using donation and tax-payer dollars to purchase big agribusiness products while denying Haiti's domestic food sovereignty. The money US tax payers are footing to help Haiti should be helping Haiti, not Monsanto, USAID "experts" salaries, shipping companies and such others. The only sustainable solution is to assist in supporting Haiti's national food production, consumption and local distribution. (See, Ezili/HLLN links at Rich countries use trade deals to seize food from the world's hungriest people and Economic proposals that make sense for the reality of Haiti - The Western economic model doesn't fit an independent Black nation.)

"What would it take to transform Haiti's economy such that its role in the global economy is no longer that of providing cheap labor for sweatshops? What would it take for hunger to no longer be the norm, for the country no longer to depend on imports and hand-outs, and for Port-au-Prince's slums to no longer contain 85% of the city's residents? What would it take for the hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake to have a secure life, with income?

According to Haitian peasant organizations, at the core of the solutions is a commitment on the part of the government to support family agriculture, with policies to make the commitment a reality.

Haiti is the only country in the hemisphere where the majority is still rural. Estimates of the percentage of Haiti's citizens who remain farmers span from 60.5% (UN, 2006) to 80% (the figure used by peasant groups)." (For complete article, go to: Agriculture and Haiti's Long-Term Future: An Analysis by Beverly Bell)

* "The Lambi Fund - Sowing the seeds of independence

Rural Haitians are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty...Many Haitian peasants are forced into unfair sharecropping agreements with wealthy landowners because they lack the capital and resources to start out on their own.

Seeding grassroots change

Lambi Fund of Haiti is donating high-quality seeds to two women's peasant organizations to help them build seed banks for their farming communities. This is a gift that keeps on giving...

Empowering rural communities, overcoming discrimination

Paired with this project, Lambi Fund will hold a series of regional trainings to further empower rural communities to overcome discrimination, to fight for their rights and use their skills to change discriminatory government policies.

Hunger fast facts:

• In the past five years, Lambi Fund has supported 100 peasant-led projects that trained over 12,500 people in sustainable agriculture, animal husbandry, reforestation and leadership skills.
• Lambi Fund's activities have impacted over 150,000 community members, many during the hurricanes in fall 2008.

Voices of Change: While I am a bit nervous about the country's current economic condition, I am extremely thankful that, unlike my counterparts in neighboring villages, I no longer feel hopeless and dependent on

others. Life is still hard for me, but I am hopeful… I have my own business and my children will not starve. —Fifine Jean Louis, recipient of a Lambi Fund micro-loan"

This project has taught us how to protect our fields and the surrounding mountains so that we have more crops, cleaner water and less erosion. Through Lambi, we have the power to make better lives for ourselves. —Farmer" (Source: Fighting Hunger From the Ground Up by American Jewish World Service)

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How to Start Helping Haiti- WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. One way to help food sovereignty in Haiti and sustainable agriculture is to support the Lambi Fund's work. Go to: How You Can Help 2. Take Action: Stop intro corporate seeds to Haiti 3. Tell Congress: Fund Local Food for Haiti 4. Knowledge is power. Understand why sweatshops don't work and why Haiti's workers - rural and urban- need your solidarity: Poverty-Wage Assembly Plants as Development Strategy in Haiti and Rebuilding Haiti - the Sweatshop Hoax (Betrayal of Haiti's majority by Liberal Democrats); Ezili/HLLN links at Rich countries use trade deals to seize food from the world's hungry... ; Economic proposals that make sense for the reality of Haiti - The Western economic model doesn't fit an independent Black nation, 2007 by HLLN.)

Happy Haitian Flag Day!

Today is a very important day in Haiti because over 200 years ago, on May 18th 1803, the Haitian flag was created in Arcahaie (just outside of Port-au-Prince). Since then, May 18th has been celebrated as Haitian Flag Day. The flag is an important symbol of Haitian freedom, national pride, and individual liberty.

Today as we look back on the proud history of Haiti, the first and only republic to hold a successful slave rebellion, the Lambi Fund of Haiti looks forward to a promising and united future as Haiti rebuilds.

In honor of democracy and continued social empowerment, help celebrate Haiti's proud past by helping rebuild for tomorrow.

With just,

...$25 you can start a tool bank, allowing farmers to use improved tools to cultivate the land and increase productivity,

...$50 you can buy seeds for a seed bank and provide sustainable agriculture training to a community,

...$100 you can purchase a goat and training so that community groups improve their livelihoods with a successful enterprise,

...and $500 you can support women's programs by replenishing community microcredit funds and providing valuable leadership and technical training.

These are the type of resources Haitian community organizations want and need. Strengthening these rural communities' capacities will ensure successful recovery in Haiti. With the past support of donors like you, we have proudly supported democracy in Haiti for over 16 years. Lambi Fund has partnered with community groups on more than 175 projects and touched almost two million lives.

Help continue the legacy and donate today.

In honor of Haiti,

Karen Ashmore

Executive Director,

The Lambi Fund of Haiti

P.S. Thank-you for your generosity.

Visit www.lambifund.org for more information.