In October, floods and winds from Hurricane Jeanne took the lives of thousands and left thousands more homeless. With support from the UUSC Haiti Relief Fund, some local organizations have begun the process of rebuilding lives and livelihoods in the wake of the devastating storm.

UUSC members and supporters responded generously to the Haiti Relief Fund after the hurricane pounded Haiti's Artibonite Valley, leaving the city of Gonaives and neighboring rural sections 80 percent under water. UUSC channeled donations through the Lambi Fund of Haiti, an organization already operating in Haiti on programs of social and economic empowerment. In response to the hurricane damage, the organization is working with grassroots communities directly in the affected area around Gonaives to provide humanitarian relief.

Hurricane devastates communities

Many projects supported by the Lambi Fund were totally wiped out. The plantain crops are gone, the newly planted seedlings to reforest the land are destroyed, community mills are washed away, pigs and oxen have drowned, and cisterns and irrigation systems have been demolished.

The greatest material losses were in crops, farmlands and farm animals. In the community of Passe-Reine, not a single house remains standing. In other areas, people lost all their possessions. The water carried away thousands of farm animals -- cows, pigs, goats, donkeys, horses, oxen.

In Geren, for example, members of one organization estimated that the crops on more than 50 hectares (about 125 acres) of land were lost. In one area alone, they counted more than 10 hectares of land planted in sugar cane that was totally destroyed. The land itself was damaged, covered with large gullies filled with rocks.

Irrigation canals and wells have eroded and have sand in them. Spring caps are demolished. Thousands of plants need to be replaced and irrigation canals and wells need to be re-built.

Members of mill projects report they lost merchandise they were storing in the depots. Market women who had purchased merchandise on credit now have no money to pay it back because their stored goods were swept away in the water.

A plan to rebuild

Many of the peasant organizations that were running Lambi community projects destroyed by the hurricane have already undergone Lambi Fund's unique leadership and organizational development training. As a result, relief aid is being used to address other needs: equipment, mills, seeds, tools, seedlings, pigs, oxen, water cisterns, wells, irrigation systems and plows. Some of the Lambi Fund's programs include:

·        Purchasing tools (wheelbarrows, shovels, hoes, etc.) so that peasant organizations could repair the roads without which travel to and from market is impossible.

·        Directing help to sustainable agriculture projects with large amounts of damage.

·        Helping organizations remove the debris from their fields so they can begin to replant for the next planting season.

·        Establishing a credit fund for all the women victims of hurricane damage.

·        Establishing an agricultural credit fund for farmers for the upcoming planting season.
 

Addressing root causes of flooding

Severe deforestation was a major factor in mudslides and flooding during the recent disasters. As a result, more and more peasant groups partnering with the Lambi Fund are reflecting on the impact of the deforestation of the land on their projects. The Lambi Fund has answered by instituting a new policy that all projects must plant 500 trees to reforest the land.

In addition, members of peasant organizations with agriculture projects have been trained by Lambi Fund on sustainable agriculture techniques. They have learned ways to address soil erosion and to conserve the topsoil in order to make better use of the land and produce greater harvests.

According to one member of a peasant organization managing an environmentally- conscious sustainable agriculture project, “The project has taught us how to protect our fields and the surrounding mountains so that we have more crops, cleaner water and less erosion in the future. We want to use some of our extra money for reforestation.”

Several groups have already taken the initiative. For example, one group proposed a coffee-planting project which also included a reforestation component since shade trees will aid the growth and health of coffee plants. Another group has done a great deal of work to reforest the land surrounding their village and proudly point out the trees they planted. They are environmental ambassadors in terms of encouraging the entire community to plant trees, compost, and conserve the soil.