Everyone is paying attention, the lady in red especially, which is a good thing because she's going to market to sell her honey and she'll be talking to everyone. By the end of the day the news of planting thousands of trees will have drifted like aerosol into a hundred places where people talk. That's social media here and why 100,000 TREES AND MORE, our project to rescue family farms, launched on a dirt road.
Within weeks 39 families stepped forward, which took courage. While they know their land is washing away and doesn't grow enough to satisfy their hunger, the risk that change might make things worse is frightening. For them, this project is a leap of faith. The risk is asymmetrical, they have more to lose than we and they trust we will act in their best interest.
Together these families are made up of 500 men, women and children, their farms total 200 acres of steep degraded land. To triage their situation we must control erosion and plant thousands of trees. Josh Koons and I just got back from Haiti and already more than a kilometer of terraces are built, 17,000 trees planted, and farmers quickly getting the hang of planting trees and food crops together (Agroforestry). By summer 50,000 trees will be in the ground. Then we'll do it again to complete the project. The barren land we start with will be visibly transformed and a thousand people nourished by a reliable food supply.
Projects like this only happen when people know who you are and trust what you do. So whether you are walking to market on a dirt road or reading my message on a smart phone, I say thank you.
We won't let you down.
Take care,
Rob
Rob Fisher, Executive Director
Partner For People and Place, Inc/JP HAITI
