June 30, 2017

“And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house.”

— 2 Samuel 6:19

 

When Bobby and I first came to Haiti many years ago, we were so sure we could bring the people of Haiti to Jesus, as we preached to the poorest of the poor in the “regions beyond.” Then one night, near the end of one of our crusades, a young Haitian woman held up her baby and said, “If God is so good, why is my baby so hungry?” This changed our ministry in Haiti forever.

 

Just as there are several types of malnutrition, Love A Child has many ways of tackling one of the biggest problems in Haiti—the need for food. The erosion across the country makes growing crops all but impossible. Most of Haiti’s food must be imported, and it is too expensive for most poor Haitians.

 

Feeding Programs

Feeding Programs in Haiti require a lot of work! It is quite a job just to get our food released from Haiti’s Customs and transported to Fond Parisien to our Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center. Then the food has to be trucked (by four-wheel-drive) deep into the mountains where the majority of our poor school children live. The food is cooked over open fires, the old-fashioned way, and we hire local women to cook the food for the children.

 

There’s nothing beautiful about poverty or hunger. This mother and child are just some of those we want to feed at least one hot meal every day. Let God open your eyes to the “cry of the poor” today, as this may be your neighbor or the woman on the street. Let your heart be open.

 

Feeding Programs in Schools

Love A Child feeds and educates over 8,500 poor Haitian children daily throughout our 18 Christian Schools in Haiti. We feed the children who attend any of our Love A Child schools through our Child Sponsorship Program, so they all receive one hot meal a day. We also send them home with food, so the whole family is receiving some food support too.

 

For many of our students, it’s the only meal they will eat that day. Beyond filling their bellies, these nutritious meals fuel their developing minds and bodies, giving them a chance of reaching their full potential. There is nothing in the world as precious as the “smile of a child.”

 

Feeding Programs in Villages

It’s hard to believe that there are children and toddlers all over Haiti, who are so hungry each day that a handful of mud helps to keep their hunger pains away. But we see it all the time. Children and babies with dried mud caked around their mouths. It is so sad!

 

Our Feeding Program outreach goes to many poor villages in the “regions beyond.” These poor people have nothing. In the village of Sapaterre, the land of Bon Bon Té, we started with a box of food. Each month we would return to the village to bring more food. As missionaries, we’ve found that it is easier to “win someone to the Lord” while demonstrating the love of God. Many of the people of Sapaterre have since come to the Lord. We now have a lovely church there, and hopefully a school soon. We also held a crusade and a Bible distribution a couple of months ago. These are such wonderful people!

 

Food Distribution Center

The Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center holds all the containers of food that are shipped to us from the States. Each month, over 80 organizations come to pick up their food, which includes orphanages, schools, and other missionary groups. Thank you, Jentezen Franklin, for our Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center!

 

Each month we receive 7-8 containers of food from Feed My Starving Children. This food is wonderful, nourishing and changes the lives of children who are hungry and starving. Thank you Feed My Starving Children, and thank you, partners, for sponsoring the transportation of all these containers of food each month. We could not do this without your support.

 

Here is one of the missionary organizations that we help each month by sharing our food that we receive from Feed My Starving Children.

 

Hope For Life Children’s Home is just one of the orphanages, of which there are many here in Haiti that is included in our food distribution each month. Look at the smiles on those precious faces!

 

Malnutrition Center

Malnutrition is the leading cause of death in children here in Haiti. Many children suffer from malnutrition, and as a result, their hair turns red and brittle. Their little bodies either become bloated or emaciated and they often die before the age of five.

 

At the Malnutrition Center, each child receives great medical care, and the family receives lots of nourishing food to take home for their babies and toddlers. We provide specialized food and attention to save lives.

 

Mobile Medical Clinics

When we go into the “regions beyond” to take Mobile Medical Clinics way up into the mountains, we also bring food to feed the many families that are barely surviving in so many of these poor, mountain villages.

 

Sustainability

It is our intention to help Haitian families get the nutrition they need so that their children are growing up strong and healthy. Haitians are not looking for a handout, but a hand-up. They are hard-working folk. Love A Child’s highest goal is to help the Haitian people become working, viable members of society and to create sustainable improvements in their living conditions. But we can’t do this if the people are starving.

Community Gardens

Our Feeding Programs are the “bridge” that brings the Haitian people to development and sustainability. We work very hard to teach the Haitian people how to help themselves. We are starting to see improvement in the area of food security, especially through our efforts with the Agricultural Training Center (ATC). We are now branching out to the people of local villages with new methods of planting and growing their food.

 

Helping Haitians help themselves is what our Agricultural Training Center is doing! We offer several different programs to reach out to young and old alike. Our 2-year program for Etudiantz En Argo-Ecologie (Students of Agroecology – the study of ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems), teaches Haitians the best way to improve food gardens so that they can feed themselves, their families and their community.

 

Grand Miracle Market

This marketplace provides a safe and convenient location for local families to sell what they produce while attracting customers with a variety of products and services. It was designed with the idea of transforming lives. It provides jobs as well as a clean, spacious environment in which Haitians can sell poultry, fish, produce and goods created through Love A Child’s “Food for Life” sustainability programs.

 

With its proximity to Miracle Village, it is not only an excellent way to create jobs in the community, but it also makes everyday shopping more affordable and accessible to the local Haitians in the region. It is bringing hope to the community.

 

Food For Life Program

By teaching the Haitians that they can improve their soil and raise their own food through some of the new methods in use at the Agricultural Training Center, we are setting them on the course of self-sustainability by planting Community Gardens. Hope Seeds has been instrumental in partnering with Love A Child by donating seed packets to those who wish to grow their food. Our ATC Director, Wilner, hands out seeds for growing fruit and vegetables to his students.

 

They are also learning about irrigation systems to help their plants stay alive in the hot, dry environment of the Fond Parisien region. Water can be a rare commodity here, so we are teaching our students to conserve water, along with composting and other methods of improving their food security.

 

Poul Mirak Co-operatif

The Poul Mirak Co-operatif (Miracle Chicken Co-op) is a unique social enterprise model established as a project for gaining self-sustainability and dignity through enterprise. It operates in conjunction with and in support of Gwo Maché Mirak. This one-of-a-kind model for long-term sustainability relies upon focused donor support to provide the foundations of infrastructure and working capital to begin a broiler growing operation. These five eager locals were picked to join the co-op. We equipped, trained, and now mentor these five members who are doing an excellent job managing their successful chicken business on their own. We offer a hand up in lifting their community out of poverty. Our Chicken Co-op is another very successful example of our Food for Life Program.

 

Farming

This is Charles and his wife from Sapaterre, the mud cookie village. They worked hard in the dirt and clay mines underground to bring up the dirt to make mud cookies for many years. We started with the first box of food and began feeding the village. Then, we conducted a crusade right inside the mud village, and many were saved, and God blessed us with a new church. Charles became a Christian and God gave him two oxen, and he named them “Christ is Able” and “God is Good!” These two oxen have made it possible to grow his first garden! God also blessed him with a motorcycle! Recently, he and his wife came to Love A Child to give an offering to the Lord… Guinea Hens!! Charles and many others who have returned to farming are now able to feed not only their families but also their community.

 

In the last two years, we have seen a tremendous improvement in the malnourished children in areas that are now growing their food. Our Feeding and Sustainability Programs have changed many lives, but they are also helping Haitians in this area to gain hope and dignity as a people. The children eat healthy food so that they can do well in school. By feeding people in the villages and showing them they can grow their food too, we see an overall improvement in their health and desire to do more with their lives, and helping other Haitians.

 

With your help, we run monthly farming classes, produce an agricultural radio talk show, and spread critical agricultural reform awareness throughout various communities in Haiti.

Helping the people of Haiti consists of giving relief, helping them to recover, and then assisting them to develop toward self-sustainability. But we first need to feed many poor families and children so that they can regain their health through our Feeding Programs. At Love A Child we believe that sharing food is the perfect opportunity to share God’s message. Thank you, everyone, who helps sponsor the food to come from the States to Haiti for the poor children living in the “regions beyond.” You are helping to feed thousands of hungry, poor families and children each month!

Please prayerfully consider becoming a partner.

Your support will save a life!

God bless you,

Sherry