Can We?
* Food Distribution
While the necessary goal is self-sufficiency, the Foundation has decided that we would purchase and help distribute gifts of beans, rice and oil periodically to those designated by our Haitian hosts when we are absent and on each mission trip. Malnutrition is really a major problem in the country. How can we eat three meals a day when our hosts eat only one? We cannot.
* Improving Gardens
In 2024 the Foundation began a program designed to improve the nutritional value of the local gardens and the yields by hiring Hilaire Mackenson as an Agricultural Agent. He tests soil, advises on agricultural education with respect to crops, fertilizer and agricultural practices. Together with Johnson Louis he will operate demonstration gardens on land owned by the Foundation north of the Methodist Church.
* Vita Mamba and Medika Mamba
When children came to school hungry, the Foundation conducted a food survey at the Good Samaritan School of Platon which indicted many children with food problems. The Foundation initiate giving each student a snack of Vita Mamba, a nutritional supplement designed by Haitians to prevent malnutrition in school aged children. The program has since been expanded to the kindergarten of the Methodist Church and the English Clubs sponsored by the Foundation. The Fond Doux Clinic has also established a robust malnutrition program for smaller children with Medika Mamba. The results are visible changes in the vitality and learning of the children.
* Improving Animal Sustainability
Each year for six years the veterinarian Libby Engel providing vaccinations and deworming of goats. Beginning in 2018 sufficient Americans and Haitians had been trained to do this so that they do this in her absence. An all Haitian team also vaccinated the pigs in Fond Doux. This prevents too many pre-mature deaths of the small life-stock population and is a great boon to improving protein nutrition. The Haitians have also extended the program to Platon.
* Goat and Chicken Production
A major early effort of the Foundation was the establishment of a goat farm in the village. Goats are still raised by individual families; but for a variety of reasons, the FDF sponsored goat farm was converted to a chicken (laying hens) facility and then closed. Plans for a new chicken farm have been delayed. Improving protein nutrition is still a goal of the foundation.
* Animal Care Training
Because so many goats died in an earlier “Kids” for Kids Project, a “Heifer Project” like program of distributing goats in the village, a program of classes in goat care has been included in our mission trips. More recently chicken care has been added.