Serving Haiti’s Rural Poor in Jesus’ Name
2018 Snapshot
TVI serves the rural Pestel region in Southwest Haiti, which has some 60,000 people, struggling to survive. Since it's a relatively small region (by comparison, the Port-au-Prince metro area is home to more than 2.5 million people), even small donations have a large impact. Your tax-deductible dollars go directly to provide education, seeds and goats to help Pestel thrive in the short and long term. Here is a brief list of Thriving Villages accomplishments in conjunction with our Haitian partners in Pestel, KPA (Christians Progress Together).
In 2018, Thriving Villages International partnered with Haitians to accomplish the following:
- Responding to parents’ requests, we assisted the small mountain school, St. Rose Elementary, to add a 4th grade. In the fall, parents and community members in Ferrier worked with BuildOn to build a new schoolhouse! TVI helped with the purchase of the land for the expansion project.
- St. Rose Elementary School had 36 children in 2017-18 and grew to 56 students in 2018-19, a 55% increase! Donations through TVI supported teachers’ salaries, books, supplies, and school uniforms. A gift of $120 covers the cost for one child for the entire school year. A typical teacher salary in rural Haiti is about $115 per month, although we’ve met teachers who haven’t been paid at all.
- TVI funded 138 goats to 138 of Pestel’s poorest families. Each family received training in successfully raising goats. And each recipient agreed to share one young goat with another family, who in turn would share one goat, perpetuating the gift. Since goats can produce some three quarts of high-nutritional milk per day, along with producing 1-3 kids per year, goats constitute a valuable part of food security.
- TVI supported a small monthly stipend to 20 elderly people in Pestel. One of the recipients, Mme. Anetide, who is 94 and blind, told the person bringing the gift with a bit of food, “That’s all the food I’ve had to eat all day.” Protecting the dignity of the indigent elderly is a high value and priority for KPA leadership. The elderly are among the poorest of the poor in Pestel.
- In the spring of 2018, KPA organized a valuable training session for 40 delegates from neighboring towns along with local health monitors. Topics included key information on agronomy, nutrition, trauma care and the connection to better health.
- TVI began a second year of partnering with a dedicated group of Haitian community developers called KPA, or Kretyans Pwogrè Ansamn (Christians Progress Together) to provide goats, seeds, education and aid to the poor in Pestel.
- Zanmi Ayiti (Friends of Haiti) Guest House Opens in Pestel under KPA’s leadership! The Guest House received 10 individuals. This guest house will serve visitors to Pestel while generating income for KPA to carry out its local missions.
- Three KPA leaders received high marks (above 90%) in their English Classes. This training is essential for them to operate a guest house in Pestel.
In 2018 additional classrooms were added to the school!
