More than half a million people fled to Central Haiti from Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. Families on Haiti's Central Plateau offered shelter to as many as 20 additional people in their one or two-bedroom huts with mud floors. This is the area, where Dr. Paul Farmer's model hospital, Zanmi Lasante ( "Partners in Health" in Haitian Creole), provides health care for the poor since 1984. The health clinic also started an agricultural initiative (Zanmi Agrikol) to increase food production in the region.
Zanmi Agrikol, "Partners in Agriculture", Helps Grow Emergency Crops for Refugees
Zanmi Agrikol (ZA) was founded in 2002 to relieve malnutrition in the region. ZA originated as a demonstration garden to show farmers what could be grown with correct terracing and cultivating methods. At first the farm grew produce for the hospital, but then concentrated on producing ingredients for "Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods" (RUTFs) for malnourished children. The initiative trains and recruits local ajan agrikol (community agricultural workers) to assist families in farming. The ZA community decided to avert the looming food crisis by planting fast growing corn, that can be harvested in three months. Food is needed as soon as possible.
Helping Haiti Rebuild: Rebuilding Agriculture
Gillaine Warne, an agronomist who runs Zanmi Agrikol, says it will be necessary to decentralize and rebuild small towns in Haiti, where the countryside has been neglected for decades. " In a country where people go hungry, " Warne says, "mangos rot on the ground, because there is no way to get them to the market." (GreenvilleOnline, 2/23/2010) She hopes to expand Zanmi Agrikol's family assistance program to reach up to 20,000 people. The project provides tools, seeds, fruit trees and a goat to families who pass on the same amount of seeds and a baby goat to another family a year later.
Support for Haitian Food Production Urgently Needed
The Haitian government and a number of private organizations have stepped up efforts to revive the farming industry. "The goal is to make this region self-sufficient—"to move away from dependency on handouts," Ms. Warne says. "This is a rural country, and now it is coming back to its roots."
Even before the earthquake, more than half of Haiti's population was undernourished. Zanmi Agrikol participants are full of praise for the program, since it helped them to grow food for themselves and sell some on the local market. The small pilot project of Zanmi Agrikol is a promising model for community-based economic development so desperately needed to build food security.
See Partners in Health Stand With Haiti Website for Updates on Relief Efforts
Earthquake Relief Efforts at Zanmi Lasante
Resources:
Quake has Haiti Relying on Agricultural Roots, Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2010
Greenville Woman Says Quake's Impact Terrifying, GreenvilleOnline, 2/21/2010
(Article about Gillaine Warne who runs Zanmi Agrikol)
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