A bakery in Lamontay

CWS and its partners support 12 agricultural cooperatives in Haiti. Those cooperatives have 5,753 members. Among those is cooperate KRCLJ in the town of Lamontay, which includes a number of members who sell bread for a living. With the help of CWS and partners, KRCLJ’s members were able to build a bakery in the community. Co-op members, other residents and students worked together to carry rocks, sand, straw and water across the mountains into their town.

On the day the bakery opened, there was celebration in Lamontay. Bread is a necessity for residents, and now it can be produced locally. “I dance, I am happy,” said Gelina Predenstin, one of the women who had previously baked bread in far away bakeries. She explained, “We used to leave at midnight, walking in the dark and danger, on narrow and bad roads, in rain and sun.” Alase Naissance added, “What we have built is something sustainable, that will be left behind for our children.”

Elizia Saintilus, another of the bakers who had previously traveled great distances only to wait in long lines to bake bread, said, “We spent three days away to bake bread. Now I dance, but we also worked hard to get this far.”