There's hope & life in Haiti because of you!

Dear Friends,

As we move into the Fall of an unprecedented and difficult year, I hope that this letter finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us our shared human experience and how much we need to pull together as a global community to care for one another.

I want to personally thank you for your continued support this year. I see that, like me, Haiti is on your mind and in your heart. Your steadfast loyalty to the mission of Bethlehem Ministry has allowed us to provide humanitarian aid, continue to pay and support St. Barthélémy teachers and staff, and keep our clinic open. Your gifts have also supported important agricultural innovation and investment in our work to empower Haitians struggling to move beyond subsistence living.

Thank you, too, for coming to our month-long “birthday party” as we celebrated Pere Bruno’s 75th birthday in July, honoring him with a special campaign to recognize his life’s work of educating and caring for the people of Haiti. Your expression of love for Pere Bruno in videos, letters, emails, and donations touched his heart and encouraged him in the important work he does ministering to his fellow Haitians.

Your involvement this year has been crucial. Your prayers, generosity, and encouragement have made this work possible, and your continued support will keep the vision of our ministry alive and growing. This year has shown me what’s possible when we see one another as family and care for each other as our own.

Our Annual Campaign, Hope and Life, is starting this month and we have a lot of new and fun ways we’ll be connecting with you over the next few months. This campaign is both the capstone for this year and the foundation for what comes next. As you think about your year-end giving, consider joining our Sustainers Circle with a monthly, unrestricted gift to support the work of Pere Bruno in northern Haiti. These consistent, unrestricted funds provide the flexibility to support the efforts most in need of resources at any given time. These needs are constantly changing, and it is important that Bethlehem Ministry remain nimble so that we can address any need that may arise.

As 2020 has shown, life in Haiti and around the world can change in the blink of an eye. Let’s create a solid foundation for what’s to come.

Mesi Anpil! (Thank you very much!)

Deb Myers

President of the Board

COVID19 in Terrier Rouge

Terrier Rouge is one of the 13 municipalities of Haiti’s Nord-Est Department, the capital of which is Fort-Liberté located near the border of the Dominican Republic. An estimated 36,000 people live in Terrier Rouge, an area roughly 60 square miles, about the same size as St. Louis. It contains 15 small villages and many more women than men. According to a 2009 census, 39% of the population of Terrier Rouge is under the age of 15; people aged 15-64 account for 53.4%, and those aged 65 and over 7.6%. Agriculture and livestock farming are the main economic activities in the area, with the main crops being corn, potatoes, cassava, pigeon peas, and sisal.

Prior to the arrival of COVID-19 in the Nord-Est Department, about 40% of new mothers managed to breastfeed exclusively. When the pandemic reached Haiti, forcing the shut- down of the country’s borders, access to food (and food diversity) became increasingly scarce. This new normal has left breastfeeding mothers without access to enough food to produce adequate milk for their children, leaving the babies lacking proper nutritional intake as well.

Prior to the pandemic, in the Nord-Est Department, 66% of children were living with anemia and 36% of children under the age of 5 were malnourished. That was before the borders, ports, and airports were closed. It is important to note that the country has been mainly relying on imports over the past 10 years, with food coming from the Dominican Republic via Dajabon, a Dominican town next to the northeast border with Haiti.

Families living in Terrier-Rouge were already surviving in extreme poverty. With the arrival of this pandemic in March 2020, life and livelihood have been paralyzed due to the closure of Haiti’s borders and with the absence of government assistance. The children are completely neglected thus the medical team of Clinique Espérance et Vie is dedicated to providing health and nutritional assistance to the children of the area. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the data to know how children are faring against COVID-19 in Terrier Rouge. And we do not have the testing or medicines to diagnose and care for children suspected of having the virus. We will continue to raise awareness in our community in order to protect children as much as possible while promising to provide their families with medical care, quality food, and face masks.

Dr. Bendson Louima

Medical Director, Clinique Espérance et Vie

Jatrofa Projenou

Things are at full throttle as Jatrofa Projenou helps rural communities meet the twin challenges of COVID-19 and a collapsing currency that is breeding hunger. To give you a sense of what we’re doing, here is a photo spread. All were taken in the past two weeks and sent to me in my weekly WhatsApp brief from the JP staff.

To remedy the lack of water to wash hands frequently at home, JP developed a hand-washing station to go along with its soap products. A trainer teaches a group of farmers about COVID19 and gives them masks, liquid soap, and handwashing stations for their households.

These Yellow Yam tubers are bound for planting. A true tropical yam (different from what we call a yam in the US), it produces harvests year after year without replanting. A harvested yam is nutritious, weighs 5-8 pounds, and can be stored for 3-4 months, making it an excellent and reliable food staple.

A single yam is planted in a deep pit, where it will develop into a large mass that can be harvested twice a year. It is back-breaking work, but farmers willingly do it to keep their families from hunger. It is also a good cash crop that grows family income.

A hillside is being planted with Yellow Yam where it will grow among trees, which are also being planted. Farmers use their own labor, but JP supplies the tubers, which are expensive (planting 1 hectare of tubers cost $750). Once established though, planting stock can be harvested for other farmers to plant.

(Right)A currency exchange graph shows a massive drop in the purchasing power of Haitian money against the US dollar since March. Inflation is increasing hunger, as the cost of imported rice outstrips what families can afford, underlining the importance of the effort to increase local food production.

(Left) New York Times, June 12, 2020

Taken together, all of these snapshots represent a work in progress that is improving the lives of people in need by helping them develop the resilience to withstand health and hunger challenges. The global pandemic is painfully teaching us an important lesson, that no matter where we live, we’re all in this together. Stay well.

Rob Fisher

Director, Partner for People and Place