Haiti Orphan’s Feeding Program
In Haiti, a country that has endured years of devastation and suffering, children are quite often the ones who are affected the most.
Approximately 38% of the Haitian population is under the age of 15; 50% of which are malnourished and do not attend school.
With a deep dependence on others, these children share the need for physical, emotional and spiritual care.
As a result, we came alongside their local partner, to help build into the future of hundreds of children.
Located in two rural areas of Haiti, are schools totaling 360 children that find themselves in difficult and often hopeless situations.
Some of the parents are so poor that they can’t afford to feed their kids and won’t send their hungry children to school. Whereas other children, regardless if they have any food in their stomach, still walk several miles every day to get to school because they have a dream for their life and want to learn. However, even after walking for an hour or so and with no food to replenish their energy, their education is still hindered.
One grade four teacher shared, “I realize that after ten o’clock in the morning the children have no energy left to learn and no matter how hard we try to retain the attention of the students, the kids don’t seem to listen or understand. For me... this feeding program needs to be implemented immediately.”
With the desire to see the 360 children receive a daily meal, an agreement was made to help GAiN’s local Haitian partner start a feeding program.
After assessing the needs for an efficient and sustainable initiative, a new kitchen was built at the school in Desarme, which has 160 students and is about four hours northeast of Carrefour, and an alreadyexisting kitchen was fixed up at the Taifer school, which has 200 students and is about an hour south of Carrefour.
To ensure this initiative continues long-term, our local partner is trying to raise money within the local church. Unfortunately, since Haiti is still considered one of the most impoverished countries, challenging individuals to give $5 per month is still difficult, especially when they are still picking up the pieces from the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010.
According to sources, 78% of Haitians are poor (less than $2 US/day) and more than half (54%) live in extreme poverty (less than $1 US/day).
Sources:
Institut Haitien de Statistique et D’Informatique et al., UNDP
Human Development, USAid and Unicef.org
