As we continue to mourn the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who died in last month earthquake, many more of their brothers, sisters, parents, children, and good friends have been leaving their destroyed homes in Port au Prince to seek refuge with their family in other parts of the country – many people returning to the small city or village in the countryside where they were born. It is these people that remind us that this catastrophe was not just a natural disaster, but it was and continues to be a disaster of Agriculture. It has been the inability of the sons and daughters of Haitian farmers to find a living in Haiti’s mountains or plains that drives them to the overcrowded and poorly constructed capital. And now as these refugees return home, rural Haiti is challenged to provide for even more families than it was already struggling to sustain.
During our time here in Haiti, Meredith and I have met many people who are stepping up to this challenge. Their answers have been school garden programs, vegetable cooperatives, a youth farm, research on jatropha bio-diesel, composting toilets, and much more. It is with this sense of optimism towards creating a better and more sustainable rural livelihood that we have been working with the Nativity Village. This community of twenty families, about a half hours walk outside town, was built this past year by one of the largest charitable organizations in Haiti. Its new residents were given a house here because they had none to call there own before; however, a nice home does not help you feed your children. That is why we, Seeds of Self Reliance, have decided to partner with the Nativity Village to help them develop their agro-ecological resources in a way that will provide them with a quality livelihood for generations to come.
We believe that animals are an integral part of any agro-ecosystem. They eat food inedible to humans, create fertility for vegetable production, and most importantly provide a rich protein source that is greatly lacking in the Nativity Village. One animal that performs all of these functions magnificently is the rabbit. The rabbit needs only weeds and leaves, it creates one of the best organic fertilizers, one of the healthiest meats, and can produce upwards of 20 offspring a year! We are working with Makouti Agro Enterprise in Cap Haitian to set up 5 interested families with rabbits. The new producers will partner with us by building a structure against sun and rain, purchasing the rabbits on credit (they’ll pay them back with rabbits they produce), and providing rabbit for other families in the community to eat or raise. The Makouti technicians will be giving trainings on rabbit biology and future cage construction, as well as 4 follow up visits to make sure that this project is a sustainable success.
We are asking for your help to buy the metal cages necessary for healthy rabbit production. Each family will receive one large cage with 4 rooms that will allow them to raise one male, two females, and the offspring for meat. Each cage costs 100 US dollars, so if each of you give just 10 or 25 dollars we can reach our goal of 500 dollars, which will allow us to start this project before we leave Haiti.
Last week I biked out to the Nativity Village for a meeting to discuss how the community can finish the barbwire wire fence which will allow them to begin growing crops safe from free-range cows and goats. The fence was supposed to have been built by their large charitable organization months ago. After the barbwire is finished they will line it with a living fence of cactus, which will last as long as it is maintained. Until then the women and kids have been tilling small gardens and fencing them with piles of thorny branches - yet unfortunately the cows still break in. The president of the Village Committee, a young father named Willa, has been planting dozens of trees all around town. He protects them with small circle of metal or branches, but the goats eat them despite this. These people desperately want to be able to make a living from the land of their new home. They do not lack skills or motivation, only a little means to be able to begin.
Please help us raise the money we need to get this project started. A tax deductible donation can be mailed to Seeds of Self Reliance, 3727 RT 15
Jeffersonville, VT, 05464. Make sure to write “rabbit” on your check. Thank you so much.
Peter and Meredith
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