Following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew, FIDA/pcH partnered with World Renew and Canada Food Grains Bank to deliver short -term relief to 1600 families that suffered complete loss of home and livelihood. The project includes an extensive survey of over 3,000 households. It is advised the relief should not etend beyond three months in order to mitigate long term dependency. Toward this end, seeds will be provided for the upcoming planting season.

The focus of this project was to educate mothers on providing proper care and nutrition for their children. This included culinary classes twice a week, a water treatment product being distributed to children who have scabies, and receiving proper treatment and medication. During the project, there were 4 screening sessions using the brachial perimeter. Two were in Lescave and two were in Duchity. During each session, mothers are asked what they want to feed their child in the following session.  The recipe will be discussed and the nutritional value of each ingredient will be explained. Prior to the following session, two women will purchase the necessary ingredients for the meal. While one group will do the cooking together, the other group will clean up afterwards. Before eating the meal prepared, a song is always sung almost like a prayer. With the help of another sponsor, following up on the project would be made possible.  This would allow for the children taking part to have 15 consecutive days of a balanced diet, successfully curing malnutrition.

Hurricane Matthew devastated three cooperatives in the Grand Anse Department of Haiti, representing over 3000 members. FIDA/pcH is able to respond through support received from a number of current partners.  Initial response allows us to deliver food kits and emergency shelter.

The distribution can be completed in a fair and equitable manner because of the values and principles that cooperatives are trained in such as: democracy, participation, gender equity, accountability and transparency. We are proud of the leadership these cooperatives provide in their communities and appreciative of our donors and partners whose investment continues to be affirmed.

The intent of this program is to strengthen the capacity of women and men farmers to enable greater trust, confidence and self-awareness for the greater benefit of families and the community. The program offers a three-level curriculum in Kreyòl with each level being a nine-month term and covers the following areas of learning:

• Knowledge and application of the notions of oral communication, written and artistic
• Knowledge and application of essential concepts in mathematics
• Knowledge and skills in experimental sciences
• Knowledge, awareness and skills related to their environment
• Knowledge and ability in protection of the environment
• Knowledge and ability in business management
• Ability to transfer skills and to create wealth
• Knowledge and ability to respect the rights of others and to perform civic duties responsibly
• Capacity to transmit learned values
• Ability to exercise decision-making power within groups and/or community.

The project presently includes 737 men and women.

FIDA/pcH is contracted to assess the capacity and potential of existing cooperatives in Haiti to produce crops for large-scale export and local consumption. Cooperatives will be evaluated in terms of their institutional strength and capacity, their adherence to the Seven International Principles of Cooperative, their current challenges and strengths. Cooperatives must be registered with Haiti’s National Council of Cooperatives. Approximately, 28 cooperatives will be selected representing about 10% of all registered agricultural cooperatives in Haiti.

Even though cooperatives in the Fon Batis have been long established, their growth has been limited due to their lack of access to agricultural credit for their members and capital credit for the business. Despite these challenges a level of organizational structure has been maintained and they remain in compliance with cooperative operating principles. Without external support, many cooperatives are unable to advance or fulfill the main objectives for which they were created. While they have a certain economic stability that allows them to continue to operate, they do not have sufficient structures in place to rise to a higher organizational level. In addition, the agricultural sector as a whole in Haiti is being challenged to source appropriate seed or even to source seed at all sufficient to meet the demand. This project proposes to strengthen two cooperatives in the Fon Batis area of Haiti:Coopérative Lumière Chinchiron (COLUC) and Coopérative L’union Peyisan Calouis(CUPEC); to provide funding and support for income-generating activities for members and to the cooperative organizations which will include the establishing of seed banks.