Let's Plant Trees in Haiti, Together!

Dear Friends:

Three months ago, I related the horrors of post Hurricane Mathew in the South and northwest of Haiti.  An already fragile land and its people are hit by the most terrifying storm leaving a trail of destruction that they had not experrienced in 35 years.

  It is only three months, so we have not fully recovered and did not expect to be.  In face of this major challenge the rural farmer was avid to start planting as you can see.  Let me share with you that there are 1599 farmers who have began all over again.  their gardens are looking well as in the pictures included.  In the Peasant Oganization Of Bois (OPBK), where men, women, children work togerther in their family plots, assisting one another in a Kombit, they are now looking at rows and hectares of green beans. .There will be harvesting by the end of March and April.  They will take local produce to the market. Thanks to all your help.

We have more to rehabilitate.  Among our 27 partners, there are four organizations focused on reforrestation that lost their nurseries of growing varieties that were projected to be planted this spring.  SADN's 120,000 seedlings washed away; KPM's 120,000 as well as  APTK's 60,000 and 20,000 from KAPKAP for a total of 320,000 trees. Our goalis to rehabilitate these nurseries and replant those trees in the neighborhoods now depleted of their previous green cover. Nurseries are being revamped so their communities can recover from their losses. 

It is with your continued support we will have planted 320,000 trees before the rainy season and protect them to the best of our abilities.  I ask you to continue on the journey to bring a green coverage to the South of Haiti.  Together we will fight to improve the environment, doing an agro-forrestry approach will also help regain a protective cover and a recovery of the genre of trees the community has known.  Thank you we are indeed grateful that you have stood with us in solidarity making a difference accross the globe reaching to the people of Haiti.  .

Antoine lost everything gardens with his new harvest, accross the land he cultivates there were avocado, papaya and mango trees, all producing additional revenue that keeps his two children in school and caring for his older mother now no longer able to farm the land. 

Hurricane Mathews destroyed his  labor, ravaged the land.  It inundated and filled the land with debris.  In the aftermath, it was total disconcertation, upsetness and sadness.  He kept saying "There is nothing left".   It felt like total despair.

Within a week when we met again, he was very clear and shared his plan.  He needed to get back and start removing the rubble, the bolders, the pieces of tree trunk and start planting again.  He also knew he could not do it alone. In a large gathereing of community farmers with the Lambi Fund of Haiti, over 1500 rural farmers made a committment that together working in unison we will plant again.  With the support we are providing, they are taking advantage of the planting season starting the first week of December to start planting.  You have made it possible with your support.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti has already invested $200,000 for planters in the area impacted.  We will repair our sustainable projects and the environment is a priority for the welfare of all the Haitian people living in the South. 

We have lost so many trees in our reforestation efforts accross the South of Haiti. With renewed effort and with your help we have begun to plant again.  Not only will we generate food that can be harvested in the next three months, we will be rebuilding our nurseries to replace the lost.  Each organization will plant 20,000 trees again.

We need your help and your participation to make our goal.  Please join us to plant trees accross the South of Haiti.  Thank you for your committment to the environment and your generosity.

Links:

• Lambi Fund of Haiti website