Almost a year ago, we started working on a new sustainability project to establish a local person in the business of growing and selling vetiver grass. Vetiver grass is a very useful plant that grows well in Haiti. It is valuable for its large, strong root system which stabilizes soil against erosion and also for the large amounts of biomass that it produces, which can be used for a lot of purposes, including mulch, garden compost, cover material for compost toilets, and even briquettes for cooking. For years now, Love A Child has been planting thousands of vetiver plants around areas prone to erosion and harvesting the growth to make cover material for our compost toilets, etc. When we first started planting vetiver, we had to buy young “starts” from a grower far away, near Archaie, Haiti. Now we have established a local grower, Mr. Excellus Exalus and his wife, to grow vetiver and sell it to us and many other buyers.

All of our students at our Agricultural Training Center (ATC) sustainable gardening classes learn to use vetiver, and now they will have a good local source to buy their plants from. Mr. Excellus was trained by Wilner and the ATC staff on how to grow vetiver and how to divide it to sell the young plants. He has been waiting until the rainy season came to plant his vetiver, which was given to him by Love A Child so he could have a sustainable business. Mr. Excellus has about 1/3 of an acre, not far from Love A Child on the way to Old LeTant village, where he will grow the vetiver. Within three months, he will be selling the young “starts” to people doing sustainable environmental work in Haiti. We would rather support a sustainable businessman through projects like this one, and the Moringa powder business of Madamn Sonia, which we started about four years ago. These sustainable businesses are “business as missions” and they help families become self-reliant with a new business, regaining dignity and having a better life.

Rad Hazelip – Assistant Executive Director of Love A Child