17 March, 2011
ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti. – In 2009, under a Development Grants Program (DGP), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) became the first major donor to fund a women’s empowerment project within three Southeastern border communes of Haiti (Anse-a-Pitres, Thiotte and Grand Gosier) for the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) to organize and train 600 Haitian women and give them the tools they need to advance their own interests around issues of health, gender-based violence, food insecurity and financial/microcredit management.
“The DGP helped BRA expand its progressive work into a country devastated by back-to-back natural disasters, healthcare emergencies, hunger and high unemployment,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO. Added to this, gender inequality often leaves the women helpless, without tools to break the cycle of poverty or advance their knowledge about those who can offer a hand-up. In consequence, Gaillard added, “the DGP aims at building capacity and providing 150 micro loans to the women to start new businesses and rebuild their economically-shattered communities.”
Meanwhile, food insecurity for these women continued to be an economic obstacle being aggravated by a lack of farmable land, agricultural supplies such as fertilizer, food crops, water resources, and an economic framework that would guarantee long-term economic/food independence. To address this, BRA, within the DGP, developed an agricultural component by providing training and visual demonstrations to 207 women and helping them to create small-scale agricultural gardens to produce basic food for their households. Training included the production of composts and a cooperative nursery where women plant crops like eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and cabbages. Anse-a-Pitres now has upwards of fifteen tire-gardens—a system that allows women to plant in their yards even if soil or space is limited. Project staff provides composts, seeds and labor. Women are also encouraged to provide some of the materials in order to reinforce ownership and break the cycle of complete dependency on aid.
BRA is already strategizing to create a cross-border agricultural development effort by connecting the Haiti small-scale garden initiative with its successful United States Department of Agriculture/Food for Progress (FFP)-funded 7,000-member cooperative-run agricultural program currently producing animals and food crops for 35,000 people inside Dominican’s bateyes. BRA previews to donate free supplies; use its agricultural experience in the bateyes to train women garden holders about advanced crop preservation and production, proper food handling, and marketing and cooperative sales; and eventually exchange or sell low-cost products of animals and food crops for cross-border/regional export business ventures.
Meanwhile, through a USAID-funded Food for Peace (IFRP) initiative, BRA is filling an important food/nutritional gap by distributing 187.6 MT of high protein Breedlove food supplement to 153,600 food insecure people inside bateyes and border communities, including USDA and USAID/GDP beneficiaries and their families. The Breedlove supplement adds all the necessary daily nutrients and vitamins lacked in the small garden-produced food—thus ensuring healthier food intake for all the communities involved.
“We believe that guaranteeing food security is an essential part of furthering community interests and our agricultural development programs in both the bateyes and border communities provide the triple benefit of training beneficiaries on growing produce to feed their families, saving them the exorbitant costs of purchasing food, and providing with the advantage of networking within local groups to engage in greater production/business ventures, therefore generating income that improves household economy,” concluded Gaillard.
