Agriculture Projects
Working for a Verdant, Productive Land
While Haiti's climate is ideal for a long growing season, outmoded farming methods and widespread deforestation and erosion are just three of the challenges facing people who want to make their living from the land.
Recently, Haitian Ministries assisted in a reforestation program in the rural community of Zorange. Zorange, which is twinned through Haitian Ministries with St. Patrick-St. Anthony in Hartford, suffered deaths and loss of homes, livestock and small farms in floods and mudslides in 2007 and 2008. A tree-planting project began in Zorange in the fall of 2008 and will continue in the spring of 2009. If the effort proves successful, we hope to use this effort as a model for other parishes.
Since the early 2000s, Haitian Ministries has supported Wynne Farm, a small nature and environmental education center and the home of Haiti-native Jane Wynne. The center is in Kenscoff, a town about a 45-minute drive up the mountains from Port-au-Prince. Jane maintains a small but diverse and lush garden at Wynne Farm.
Haitian Ministries provided emergency relief funds to Wynne Farm after a devastating hurricane in northern Haiti in the early 2000s. That money helped in a reforestation project spearheaded by Jane.
Today Jane works with recycling and reforestation projects throughout the country and with other soil conservation and education projects. She teaches at schools in and around Port-au-Prince and runs a "fresh-air" camp for children from orphanages and Madam Samson's meal program--all supported by Haitian Ministries.
Travelers in our immersion trips visit Wynne Farm. Haitian Ministries remains open to further collaborations with Jane and Wynne Farm.