Report on

Transformational Development for Haiti

FY 2010

Date: July 30, 2010

Submitted by:
Doug Satre, Director of Development
Plant With Purpose USA, Inc.
4903 Morena Blvd., Suite 1215
San Diego, CA 92117
(800) 633-5319
Executive Summary
This year Plant With Purpose worked with thousands of rural Haitians to restore their land,
transform their lives, and recover from the terrible earthquake that shook the country in January
of 2010. In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake, the needs of the communities we work with
increased exponentially, and we were anxious to use our expertise to assist in critical relief and
recovery efforts. Our experienced field staff responded with a relief and recovery program that
included immediate food aid, road clearing, seed distribution, and a short-term employment or
“Cash for Work” program. As a result of these efforts, desperate families were provided with
food to eat and jobs to support themselves while engaging in productive, restorative work that
will have lasting benefits for the land, their families, and their communities. Additionally, the
project has allowed us to expand our reach within Haiti and bolstered our reputation in the
international aid community. We formed new partnerships with local and international
organizations and began working with new communities, reforesting new areas, and encouraging
new families to implement sustainable, income-generating projects.

“Plant With Purpose was the only organization who helped. They gave rice, oil, and beans, both for food
and seed,” said Claudette Charles of Boudon, pictured above with some of her family members.

Apart from earthquake relief, we were able accomplish most of our goals for the year. We
continue to be encouraged by the growing interest and participation in our life-changing projects.
An overview of the impact of the earthquake and our progress toward the program’s specific
goals and objectives are included below.

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Overview
The first half of the year featured steady growth and achievements as farmers and community
groups joined together to implement sustainable, income-generating projects. We were very
hopeful and impressed with Haitian communities’ resilience to the destructive hurricanes of late
2008. Farmers worked diligently to plant trees and construct soil erosion barriers to protect and
rebuild hillsides that had been damaged by the storms.

The catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010 was a tragedy with a scope
and magnitude we could never have imagined or prepared for. Hundreds of thousands of families
lost homes, income sources, friends, and family members. We are grateful to report that all 42 of
our Haitian staff members survived the deadly quake, although we received many reports of
deaths and collapsed buildings in the communities where we work, including staff members who
have lost loved ones. The rural farming communities where we work in the Grande Colline
region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, were affected both by the physical impact of the quake and
by resulting migration to rural zones as thousands fled the ruins of Port-au-Prince. This placed an
immeasurable burden on rural families who were already struggling to survive.

This Haitian family took in five relatives from Port-au-Prince after the quake. Family size increased by
an average of 40% in the rural areas as thousands fled the devastated capitol.

Our Haitian staff were able to respond to the immediate and interim needs of communities where
we have built long-standing relationships over the last 13 years. Since the earthquake, we have
provided 125 tons of food to 15,000 Haitians in 45 communities and distributed nearly 80,000
pounds of bean seed to over 2,000 families. Also, we employed over 2,100 farmers through a
"Cash for Work" program to plant over 170,000 trees and construct over 260 miles of soil
erosion barriers. This progress will provide a vital barrier against potentially deadly hurricane
storms, and is a testament to the leadership of the local staff who were on the ground at the time
of the earthquake and were able to respond immediately. And, as the trees grow, they will also
provide wood for fuel and construction as well as fruit for nutrition and income.
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The earthquake has already signaled dramatic repercussions for our ongoing work with
communities. Many of our regular initiatives were put on hold as staff and community members
pooled their resources to respond to the disaster. Additionally, our scope and services rapidly
expanded from a $400,000 development program to a $1 million relief and recovery program—
the biggest initiative in Plant With Purpose history. From this, we were able to establish key
relationships with new funders such as the United Nations and the Emergency Response Relief
Fund, new organizations such as World Relief, and new churches, community leaders, and
farmers within the Grand Colline region. As shown in the results below, we experienced a
substantial increase in the number of farmers participating in our sustainable agriculture and
reforestation efforts. Our challenge for the coming year will be to maximize these new
partnerships and cultivate sustained growth while transitioning out of our relief program.

Women pick up rice to take home to their families. In the weeks following the quake, the rice provided by
Plant With Purpose was many families’ only meal for the day.

In spite of the earthquake and the ensuing challenges, we were able to implement most of the
projects planned for the year alongside our relief program. In fact, we greatly exceeded all of our
reforestation and agriculture goals, independent of our emergency “Cash for Work” program.
However, a redirection of time and resources to earthquake relief caused us to fall short on our
goals in the areas of economic development and discipleship. The following is a summary and
explanation of our progress with regard to our proposed program goals for July 1, 2009 to June
30, 2010:

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Project Goal
To empower rural Haitians to simultaneously restore their environment, build their economy, and
transform their relationships with God, one another, and the land through socially,
environmentally, and economically viable systems of development.

Project Objectives
1. Community Development and Training
● Train 150 new farmers in soil conservation, reforestation, fruit tree grafting,
composting, and veterinary care
Result: Completed. Greatly exceeding our goal, we trained over 3,700 farmers in a
variety of sustainable agriculuture techniques. Four hundred and forty farmers were
trained in reforestation, 788 in soil conservation, 594 in fruit tree grafting, 951 in
veterinary care, and 697 in organic fertilizer. Our involvement in earthquake relief
increased our exposure and the scope of our work in Haiti; consequently, community
members’ interest and participation in many of our trainings, workshops, and
environmental activies increased dramatically.

● Train 400 farmers to vaccinate and care for 5,000 animals

Result: Completed. 951 farmers were trained to care for 8,655 animals. Animals are often
viewed as an informal savings account, so learning to care for them and increase their
health and lifespan is very beneficial to rural Haitian families.

Iloma Jean Baptiste, Cheridant group member who has seen the benefits of planting trees.

2. Innovative Agriculture and Forestry

● Produce and plant 50,000 tree seedlings
Result: Completed. Farmers planted 88,196 trees this year. Since the earthquake, we have
had an influx of farmers and community members who want to join in our reforestation

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 efforts. New participants are asking to join our community groups because they have seen
their friends and neighbors benefit from tree planting and soil conservation activities.
Iloma Jean Baptiste, a member of our Cheridant group since 1998, said he has seen lots
of benefits from planting trees in his own community. He said, “Trees we planted, for
example these trees you see behind you, we now use to build our houses and make
charcoal, and have made a good profit. We have done soil conservation to control erosion.
The soil conservation work gives us a guarantee that we will not lose too much soil.”

● Construct 90,000 linear meters of soil conservation barriers

Result: Completed. Farmers constructed 91,000 linear meters of soil conservation barriers
this year. Coupled with tree planting, soil conservation replenishes soil, improves crop
yields, and allows families to improve their livelihoods and become self-sufficient.
Movitivated by the good results they are seeing, many groups continue to participate in
microwatershed reforestation without the need for a “Cash for Work” incentive. For
example, the Plant With Purpose cooperative in Dewotinn has constructed contour canals
and reforested a plot of abandoned land, pictured below.

The white line in the left of the picture signifies soil contour canals that co mmunity members have
built. Directly to the right of the canals, you can see the newly reforested area.

● Complete 2,800 fruit tree grafts

Result: Completed. Farmers worked with us to complete 3,017 fruit tree grafts. Grafting
is done to improve the stock and the quality of the plants. Farmers recognize the
importance of replacing their low yielding trees for more productive ones and grafting is
the way to do it.

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 ● Establish 800 compost piles to produce natural fertilizers
Result: Completed. Also greatly exceeding our goal, 1,376 compost piles were
established to provide farmers with natural fertilizers. The high price of chemical
fertilizers and the increased interest in agricultural activities resulted in a higher turnout
than we expected for many of our composting workshops, allowing us to train and equip
thousands of farmers to create and maintain their own compost piles. Farmers learned
how to use compost in place of harmful chemical fertilizers that may grant quick results,
but end up polluting and depleting the soil.

● Establish 70 new community tree nurseries

Result: Completed. 106 new community tree nurseries were established this year. The
seedlings produced in these nurseries were planted by paid workers in our “Cash for
Work” program and used by existing Plant With Purpose cooperatives to carry out their
reforestation activities for the year.

New nursery space on our research farm. The new nursery houses approximately 10,000 seedlings.

3. Economic Development
● Provide 500 loans to farmers
Result: The crisis resulting from the earthquake pushed many families who were already
struggling to survive to the brink of extreme poverty. Credit cooperative meetings were
put on hold as families shifted their focus to collecting food aid and finding whatever
income sources possible to provide for themselves and their displaced relatives. As such,
we were only able to provide 123 loans this year. We are in the process of transitioning
from credit-led to savings-led cooperatives, and the next year will focus on strengthening
and building the capacity of existing cooperatives to increase their ability to save.
Although no one could ever be fully prepared for such a catastrophe as the recent

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 earthquake, accumulating savings will decrease farmers vulnerability in emergencies
such as natural distasters, crop failures, or unexpected life events.

● Credit cooperative members will maintain a loan repayment between 98-100%

Result: In the wake of the earthquake, our loan repayment rate dropped to 79%. Although
we were able to provide seeds, food, tools and employment to thousands of families in
our emergency relief program, the scale of the need was immense and many families
were forced to divert their loan payments just to survive in the months following the
quake. As we shift our focus from emergency relief to long-term recovery efforts,
families will have an increased capacity to repay their loans.

4. Discipleship
● Develop and reinforce the pilot partnership program with 6 churches
Result: Because of the earthquake, many churches were focused on their own relief,
recovery, and rebuilding efforts. We were only able to work with 1 church to further
develop a pilot partnership program. We collaborated with many churches to coordinate
relief activities, but these partnerships were not a part of the anticipated pilot partnership
program. We do, however, look forward to cultivating these new relationships with
churches and community leaders as we move forward in our long-term development
work.

Although not part of our official church partnership program, we worked with an Episcopal Church in
Cheridant to organize “Cash for Work” teams.

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 ● Organize 4 seminars for staff and leaders that focus on holistic community
development
Result: 1 seminar was conducted in the first half of the year, but staff time and resources
originally allocated for the remaining seminars were directed toward earthquake relief
efforts.

Conclusion
Plant With Purpose’s approach to both community development and disaster recovery focuses on
teaching skills to farmers that will enable them to restore their farms to productivity and restore
prosperity to their communities. Although we are greatly saddened by the extreme devastation
and immeasurable suffering caused by the earthquake, we believe we have grown tremendously
as an organization in the last year and are better equipped to respond to the increasing demand
for our services. Both agriculture and reforestation efforts will be critical in the rebuilding and
longterm development of Haiti. We are encouraged by the overwhelming success we have seen
in both of these areas. As we look to the year ahead, we plan to build upon our successes,
reevaluate and revive the initiatives that were disrupted by the earthquake, and continue to assist
Haitian families as they make the transition to a more stable situation and work to build a
brighter future for their families. Overall, we have been incredibly inspired by the tenacity and
resiliency of Haitian families who have responded to tremendous adversity with courage,
perseverance, and an undying community spirit.

We deeply value our partnership with you and your instrumental contributions to our critical
work in Haiti. Thank you for your partnership with us in this truly life saving work.