There may not be another country in the world in which the decline of the environment is more obvious than in Haiti.  As one flies over the landscape it is quickly evident that deforestation and the resulting erosion have caused many problems for the people and the country of Haiti.

The border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Cobb, Charles E. 1987. “Haiti: Against All Odds.” National Geographic, Vol. 172, No. 5: 645-670. Photo by James Blair

The same view from NASA. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center - Scientific Visualization Studio

There also may not be a more debated issue than that of climate change. Honestly, it makes no difference to us what a person believes about climate change. However, we believe that people are to be concerned with the environment and how it is treated, if for no other reason than self preservation, although there are many other reasons. It is with these two ideas in mind that we link the following articles.

This one is a report from Oxfam about the problems of climate change and how they affect impoverished countries in general and Haiti specifically.

The second is a six part series about Haiti and its environmental problems (for some reason I can only find the first five installments of the article, if you find the sixth please let me know)

I would be willing to state that the degradation of the environment in Haiti is the number one problem that the country faces. Environmental degradation leads to poor farmland which lowers productivity and makes Haiti more dependent upon food imports. Environmental degradation pollutes water sources, making clean water a hard commodity to obtain. Environmental degradation causes health problems and in Haiti, a country with an extremely limited medical infrastructure, small health problems become huge problems quickly. Environmental degradation also causes/compounds the problems of natural disasters. Mudslides are the result of treeless mountains. Long periods of drought can be attributed to once lush sections of country turned to treeless scrublands. As the fifth installment of the above article notes, erosion has even caused problems for Haiti’s coral reefs, the restoration of which could lead to an increase in tourism, an integral part to the reestablishment of the Haitian economy.

In short, environmental problems pose the most immediate and serious threats to those who already live on the margins, those who toe the line of subsistence every day. The poor of countries like Haiti will be the first to be displaced/starved/killed by the degradation of the environment and the least capable to deal with it. We are concerned with these issues in Haiti and we are striving to play a part in, not only the restoration of the environment in Haiti, but also an understanding that it is the reponsibility of Christians to care for the resources that God has intrusted to us.

Here is a link to a page with a four part story on Haiti, the titles are, “One year on,” (about last year’s hurricanes) “Shunned lives,” (children with disabilities) “Child slaves,” and “Haiti’s slums.”

The BBC put together a small photo essay about hunger in Haiti.  Here is the link.

If you live near L.A. and want to see a Judith Hill concert at the El Rey Theatre, then you will want to check out this link.  She is doing a concert with proceeds going to buy food for NWHCM’s nutrition programs. Also, check out this link to Yellow Black and White a clothing line that is helping put on the show.

#1 The kids playing soccer:
Ever since Matt Jump was here in Haiti the campus has become a sort of after school soccer league. We love the fact that it lets the kids actually be kids for a part of their day.

#2 The kids gardening:
The same kids that play soccer every day have watched their parents tend their farms for a good portion of their lives. They have also seen us try to grow varying plants in the yard. One day, when there were too many kids to make up only two teams of soccer, the third team decided to make their own garden in a plot of land in front of our house. They have planted moringa, corn, sugar cane and a few other things as well. I even told them that I would buy some produce off of them when the time comes.

#3 Elet Setting The Example In Town:
Elet works for the mission here in La Baie and I recently gave him both a solar oven and a Sawyer water filter in order to be a sort of advertiser in town. He lives right on a main road so people see him making stuff every day. He says that the oven is great because he does not have to buy charcoal. That statement brings me close to tears, Elet gets it.

Interesting side note:  Last week Elet was stung by a lionfish, he is OK but he was pretty sick for a while.  The interesting part is that everyone says these fish did not exist in La Baie until the hurricane.  I did some research and apparently many people think that hurricane Andrew has something to do with the population of these fish in the Caribbean after it destroyed home aquariums and washed fish out to sea.

#4 The Community Organization
For the past few weeks the organization has been putting together a plan to build a market in La Baie. We plan to start by offering various merchants a small start-up loan so that they can purchase goods to sell. If anyone is interested in helping out with these loans, send us an email.

#5 The Moringa Project/Garden
Last week I spent a large amount of time planting our garden. First we planted rows of moringa trees for an extremely exciting project that will be discussed in much more detail in the future. The next day we planted a ton of corn by hand, it was quite the task, but also a lot of fun.

There are other things that we would like to update you on as well. Hopefully, while we are in America for the month of December we will have time to update the information on this site and also add new pictures and videos to keep you informed of what is going on here in La Baie.

My cousin sent me this article, have at it:

Rebuilding Haiti: A step backward- “the dumping of the prime minister raises fears of drift”

Please pray for the family of our friend Seloney (a construction worker for the mission), the man on the left. Seloney died today and left behind his wife (a cook at the mission) and his children.



Seloney was a good man and friend and he will most definitely be missed.

The Haitian Senate fired the Prime Minister this morning. At a time when things are relatively looking promising for Haiti, this is not good news. However, if she is replaced quickly and with a suitable person this could in fact be a good thing as the previous Prime Minister was oft accused of moving too slowly and impeding progress in Haiti (despite only having a year in office). Make sure to keep up with the news by clicking on the links on both the right and left hand side of this page.

Until we can move to the new campus on higher ground we are limited in what we can do in regards to a tree nursery for the sake of reforestation and also food purposes. However, we have managed to plant a lot of trees on the current property where we live and to also start a number of seedlings in varying ways. Below are pictures of some of the trees that we have been working on.

Avocado seeds germinating in water, we have over eighty doing this right now.

This is an, unfocused, picture of an Avocado seedling. We currently have three of these.

This is an Almond tree in the yard.

This is a Moringa tree, one of several in the yard.

This is a Kenep tree, Mamoncillo in English, and it is also in the yard.

A St. Domingo Oak tree in the yard.

A Mango tree, one of many in the yard.

A Coconut Palm that David Moore planted, one of many in the yard.

Last week we started up a group that we actually first put together before the hurricanes, but was set aside until more recently. The idea of the group is to be a sort of community sounding board/development group that will talk about the problems of our community and also try to fix them.

The group prepares to vote on leadership.

Discussing the voting process.

Future projects include building a small market in town, working on the roads, and continuing some of the micro-credit programs that churches like Heartland (linked at the right) have started.

Everyone left with seeds to plant in their gardens.