From Seeds to Success: Haiti Needs You

Good afternoon.

You often hear us talk about the road to our farm in Boucantiste, Haiti. This is a picture of just one of the areas where it is easier to walk up the hill than to try and drive with everyone in the vehicle.

With high temperatures and no shade, it is a difficult climb, especially for me. As you can see, the Haitian team members made this climb quicker than us.

They are accustomed to these 'little' hurdles.

Each week we seem to jump from one of our programs to another, but the truth is each of these programs is inter-related.

When we first started to offer scholarships, it was, and is, an important step in moving young people out of poverty and into a better life for themselves and their families.

Fondation Vincent in Cap Haitien

The second started when we moved to try and stem the tide of deforestation and offer an alternative to tree charcoal.

Elephant Grass

Then came the need to put more calories into our workers and their families and our neighbors. That is how the food crop program began. Today we grow corn, peanuts, pistachios, sweet potatoes, tapioca, congo beans, and sugar cane.

Corn planting

Congo Bean Farm

Sugar Cane Planting

Tapioca Plants

With these crops, there grew a need for more irrigation, which called for a water pump and maintenance.

Water Pump

This has helped many of our local farmers as well. Another addition was an oxen team to help the farms plant their seeds deeper in the soil where there is more moisture and leads to better crop yields.

Marcel and Christophe

With all these developments, we needed a way to transport grass, cane, and other crops to and from our land in Boucantiste up and down the hill to Bernaco, where vehicles can still get to on the road. This has led to our ongoing appeal for a mule team.

Mules on their way to the sugar cane field.

To add to this list, as we have told you before, we have now started a tree nursery with the goal of planting 1,000 trees in the next year. We hope that number will grow to 4,000 in the next two years.

Cacia Tree start

All of these take capital. Each month we need over $5,000 to operate. That is where you come in. Your generous donations over the past 11 years have helped us to grow and allowed us to offer scholarships, employment, farming assistance, water, and plan for a future where there is shade on hot and humid days.

We hope and pray that you will continue your support and if you have not yet given a donation, that you might add BonZeb to your list of charitable giving options.

And as they say in Haiti, thank you in advance for what you will do. Mèsi levans pou sa ou pral fè.