Today is exactly one year since the earthquake in Haiti killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians and left millions without adequate shelter, healthcare and food.
Haiti was a food insecure country long before the earthquake. But a year after the tremendous devastation and the collapse of infrastructure, making sure that Haitians get the food they need to survive is now even harder. We’ve seen over the past year that problems persist when emergency aid runs dry. This means that long-term strategies for replanting crops and farms to replenish Haiti’s local food supply and provide a source of income to Haitian farmers must be a priority.
Fortunately, organizations like Lambi Fund and many others have been creating much-needed sustainable change. A long-time AJWS grantee, Lambi Fund donates high-quality seeds to two women’s peasant organizations to help them build seed banks for farming communities. The Fund supports projects that focus on agricultural development, crop diversification, grain storage and agricultural processing as well as organizational development.
Over the past year, Lambi Fund has responded to an out-migration to rural areas by helping members of peasant groups get food and essentials for their families to re-establish their lives. The Fund is also providing seeds, tools and equipment for peasant groups to plant more crops to feed rural communities, and is rebuilding grain mills, sugar cane mills, rainwater cisterns for safe drinking water, and other economic development community enterprises lost in the earthquake. These buildings are the centers of communities’ economic livelihoods. Additionally, Lambi Fund is recapitalizing micro-credit funds run by grassroots organizations so that people can replenish and continue their small businesses.
Restoring Haiti’s food supply will take years, but with the vision and energy of local Haitian organizations, we’re that much closer to ensuring that Haiti has a vital, nourished future.
