Training community organization members
A major event compelled a major shift and greater effort in meeting the needs of a defined constituency. The earthquake increased the gap in services due to the magnitude of destruction it left behind. For the last five years, Lambi Fund has expanded its project with great focus on the environment, micro enterprises for women and farmers; increasing training building needed skills in management and specialty needs like mill mechanics, animal handlers and veterinary technicians.
During 2015 Lambi Fund increased the training capacity of 23 farming community organizations in rural Haiti. 192 members (113 men and 79 women) in 6 projects on animal husbandry, received management training as well as animal care with a veterinarian. The training last 5 days for the animal care hands on and the management component lasted 2 days. 4 projects that focused on community loan fund receivedto manage contracts, accounting for loan management and credit portfolio management. 3 out of 3 organizions were women focused and women led. Trainees numbered 161 of which 15 men and 146 women. The four sustainable agriculture project trained 139 persons (110 women 29 men) in transformation of fruits and Oxplowing. The overwheming majority of women are involved in transformation of fruits. The environment is a major priority and withdonor partnership we were able to provide nursery techniques training for 214 persons (114 men and 100 women).
When Lambi Fund assesses the number of organizations that are functioning over the last 22 years, each trained individual becomes an asset to the community and contributes to its growth.
Without your support it would not be possible. We join together to echo our thanks.
We are making progress as we undergird our economic development projects with advocacy and voicing the need for equity, parity and justice. Rebuilding Haiti is not only focusing on re-establishing, schools for education, housing post eartquake, nor is it provision of water and basic necessities for health, welfare. It is also looking at strategies that will impact life conditions with systemic changes.
If we have in concert made a valid choice this year, it is to redouble our efforts for civic education and expand our work on empowerment and advocacy through networking and seeking justice for all people in haiti. Indeed this is the foundational that is needed for rebuilding in Haiti an institution of justice to uphold the rights of all its people to be treated with dignity and respect.
Climate change is already a deadly reality in Haiti. Grassroots groups in Haiti are reporting a 7-month drought. Two seasons’ crops have been lost in many parts of the country. While droughts have been a fact of life in the past, researchers have noted a steady decrease in rainfall for each of the past twenty years. And climate change is directly connected to the destructiveness of extreme weather events, like hurricanes. So the good projects that Lambi empowered our partners to complete are all under threat, said Mark Schuller, Chair of the board of Lambi Fund.
For these reasons and others, this year Lambi has committed ourselves to reinvigorate the civic education part of our mission. When celebrating our 20 years last year, local partners asked for our support in creating regional networks. We have begun this process of making these connections, to empower grassroots groups to build common ground and a platform. We have supported the regional networks with increasing Civic Education trainings in the South and Artibonite. Combined with continued local development support, this platform will help Haitian grassroots leaders articulate and build a new Haitian society, changing the dynamic between the government and the world economy.
We are enabled with your support and generosity as you also in your localities become more aware that the world is uniting closer as these global changes ultimately impact everyone on this planet. Thankyou for your trust, your dedication and your awareness. You are making a difference in rural Haiti and we want to acknowledge it. Thank you and have a great holiday Season.
LITY.
Inclusion, access, equity and equality are for us the most essential elements in the long term rebuilding of Haiti. First to gain independence and falling back in giving freedoom to its people, Haiti is far from creating a free place where people can, by their boot straps, reach individual freedoms. Long term rebuilding is more than open hands to receive resources; it is much more about creative and proven solutions with local involvement and strong engagement.
The development of community credit funds managed by local organizations to build local enterprises for farmers and for women is a crucial piece of the puzzle for long term rebuilding in Haiti. It combats unemployment, it spurs or stimulates the local market enterprising and creates capacity to reinvest in the community. In addition, these businesses meet the basic needs of community dwellers.
Small commerce is the hallmark of revenue-producing activities in a country where high unempployment has remained consistent over the last two decades and the brain drain is such that it is unrivaled. Partnership with local organizations that creates small funds to support the local commerce is a priority. This is a year for producing revenue and rebuilding the economy and the local neighborhoods, while increasing the number of children in school and the number of survivors.
Throughout this year, Lambi Fund has worked with 14 rural farming organizations in expanding 5,882,500 HTG (Haitian Gourdes) of small loans at a 2% degressive interest rate which has been distributed to 2594 rural planters. Loans are for a duration of six months which facilitate the production of the harvest and tilling the land for the new planting season. The loans to women are for expanding their small businesses. Revenue from the loans has increased the fund balance to 7,719,393 HTG. The revenue from the loans also allows the organizations to increase the number of people who are able to receive loans to create their own revenue or expand their local food production.
The contribution that you have made makes the micro loans possible and improves the number of people who create their own revenue through small enterprises.
Thanks to your generosity, many families today are able to keep their children in school and keep food on the table because they have work.
The “Conseil National de Securite Alimentaire” (Council on Food Security) projected an increase in food shortage for the coming months.The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture are conferring on the changing weather patterns, (longer draught, shorter rainy season). The evidence of climatic events and climatic change are on the horizon in Haiti. Any plans that are concerned with longterm rebuilding must address these profound lifestyle changes that come with climate events. For rural Haitian farmers in remote areas the problem is more than a threat, it is already a stark reality that cannot be avoided.
Currently, the Lambi Fund partnered with Northwest Haiti, namely IPTKSK (Organization of Peasant from Savann Karre) to respond to the drought impacting 7,500 families in the Northwest of Haiti. In a joint effort, we planned to built 30 cisterns to provide 18,000 gallons of water each to support the growing need for water in the neighborhoods of Dityet, Lakoma and Mawotye. With the support of our GlobalGiving supporters, individuals and other foundations, we have constructed 20 of the 30 cisterns. 10 in Dydyet and 10 in Lakoma are completed.
With 10 more to go, we are meeting a challenge incorporated midstream in the rebuilding of Haiti’s already complex environmental profile. It is a work in progress that compels rigueur and flexibility to work in partnership with the most vulnerable to make a change and improve preparedness of those whose lives are at greater risk with the changes we are experiencing.
We thank you for your involvement and continued support in focussing some of our activities on matters of rebuilding Haiti – a longterm effort that requires thoughtfullness, community participation and engagement from all concerned.
Share your thinking by emailing us at info@lambifund.org or meeting on our blog page. I look forward to hearing from you!
If there is uncertainty about supporting 9 million Haitians because of corrupt government and perceived misuse of the earthquake funding, it is obvious to the Lambi Fund that long term committment cannot stop because there are sour strategies and undeliverable dreams of a changing tomorrow. I find it impossible not to continue forging ahead with the work that we have struggled to deliver in partnership of a critically vulnerable part of the population, that of the farmers in rural Haiti.
The result that we have seen in quantifiable transformation and cultivvation of food products to feed local families and fuel the local market alone is sufficient to spur a forward movement in sustainable activities that will improve their tomorrows. that is why I am reporting today that Lambi fund is taking a few first next steps
- A new project of the Woman from SOFALA who are stocking peanuts and transorming peanuts to peanut butter for sale in the local market. The Lambi fund will provide equipment and training in mass production of peanut butter. It will also produce employment for the women cooking and producing the peanut butter, managing the factory line type production.
- The Lambi fund is embarking on developing a permanent space to house the office, education and training spaces to advance the effort to train, improve management skills and improving capacity to serve the communities in need.
- Lambi fund plans to expand its rights and justice based education to improve citizen responsibility and enhance advocacy for all looking people forward to institutionalized democracy through election, participation and inclusion.
Five years post the earthquake that took over 250,000 lives, we have improved in productivity and have a vision of expanding our reach to build more responsible citizens who take charge of building their communities. So you are among the first to know:
Lambi Fund of Haiti will be expanding its reach to inform, educate and train its partners on their rights, (civil and human) and improve their capacity and readiness to face the challenge of demanding their rights and assuming their responsabilities.
Please join us in building the future. You will be glad you did. Take the next steps with the Lambi Fund of Haiti and rural farmers in Haiti!
Thank you so much for supporting these efforts!
