Imagine that you are living in a very poor village in Haiti, and you and your children haven’t eaten in several days. Constant hunger pains are all too common for more than half the families living in the poorest villages throughout Haiti. Bobby and Sherry reach out to these hungry, forgotten people through the Feeding Programs they conduct all around the countryside, but how can we help them to feed themselves?

The highest form of helping people is to help them develop their full potential for creating a sustainable improvement in their living conditions. The Agricultural Training Center (ATC) has a three-week residential training course in Sustainable Gardening in Haiti that is designed to do just that. In this training program, we teach Haitian families how they can be better farmers, with sustainable methods to improve their gardens, producing more food for their families and the community. This is our “Food for Life” Initiative.

This training teaches such things as soil preparation, making compost, making homemade fertilizers and insecticides, using heavy mulches and drip irrigation, seed saving, water conservation, and even making “gardens” without soil. Their lessons include hands-on gardening and “classroom” work as well.

We have not been able to hold these training classes for a few years because of the danger due to the violent gangs controlling daily life in Haiti, but we are praying that conditions will soon return to normal so we can hold our important training classes again. Wilner and the ATC staff are already preparing for the return of our training course students and are even expanding our training to include goats, small flock chickens, bees, and rainwater harvesting.

Stay tuned for good news!

A big thank you to all those of you who support and sponsor all of our Development for Sustainability outreaches like the Agricultural Training Center, the Marketplace, and the slaughterhouse. Your support changes lives for generations.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director