Hand in Hand food co-operative in Haiti. Photo: Chris Herlinger/CWS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti and New York – When you climb the mountains of northern Haiti and are greeted by the welcoming residents of the “Hand in Hand” food cooperative in Mayombe you are not just in good company. You also are witnessing a successful social experiment – a community becoming self-sufficient in feeding itself.
“It’s a chain of solidarity,” said Elvius St. Fulis, a food cooperative member for the past decade. “Everyone is involved in the process—women, men. As a body, we’re not dependent on the government. It’s good to be self-reliant.”
It also is good to mark the work of these and other cooperatives in Haiti and elsewhere as Church World Service and the international community mark World Food Day on October 16, a worldwide event organizers say is “designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed, year-around action to alleviate hunger. ”
As part of its response to the earthquake in Haiti, CWS recently extended its support for the 13 cooperatives like “Hand in Hand” for another year. Combined, the cooperatives serve more than 3,000 members and internally displaced persons in the Northwest and Artibonite regions.
The co-ops provide members with access to credit for necessities like fertilizers, seeds and tools. Special emphasis is placed on supporting women’s access to credit that can be used to start or expand a small business. The CWS-supported program also provides training and technical assistance for cooperative members.
Such programs are part of an ongoing effort by CWS to tackle the problem of global hunger for the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Recent CWS efforts include micronutrient interventions in Indonesia with the H.J. Heinz Co. Foundation; research on ready-to-use therapeutic foods with the University of Hohenheimin Stuttgart, Germany; and a focus on nutrition in CWS programs in Central America.
The agency also participated in nutrition research and commentary during the review and development of the U.S. government’s new food aid policies, including the development of “Feed the Future” efforts emphasizing the need to focus on proper nutrition for young children.
“During the first 1,000 days, from conception to the second birthday, the consequences of malnutrition are irreversible,” said Maurice A. Bloem CWS’s deputy director and head of programs.
CWS is also advocating for sufficient investments in agriculture, especially to support smallholder farmers, coupled with initiatives to promote dietary diversity, and the sustainable production and consumption of animal-source foods, vegetables and fruits.
The work in Haiti is representative of such initiatives.
Earlier this year members of the “Hand in Hand” cooperative touted progress made in such areas as pooling resources and developing access to credit, loans and seeds.
Co-op members spoke of their ability to develop a sustainable system of food security — the access to and availability of food, as well as its utilization. Co-op members store crops and seeds for household use, with enough left over to sell at local markets and earn extra income.
Cher-Frere Fortune, a coordinator of the cooperatives who works with the Haitian development and humanitarian agency Christian Center for Integrated Development in Port-au-Prince, and who has been associated with the coops since their founding in the early 1990s, has a definition of food security.
“To me, it’s as simple as having enough to eat on a daily basis. It shouldn’t be foods that are imported, but foods people raise themselves and in enough quantity so they have enough for a rainy day and enough so they have enough resources until the next planting season,” Fortune said.
Co-op member Nocile St. Juliun Fortuna is one of many survivors who found refuge–and hope–at a co-op after the January 2010 earthquake.
Once Fortuna left the devastated Haitian capital and returned to her hometown of Mayombe, she had to find a way to support her family. With a co-op loan that she pays back monthly, Fortuna purchased items like cooking oil and beans that she could then sell for money to help support her family.
“I’ve become more hopeful, yes,” Fortuna said, noting that she is one of 50 women who have received loans as part of a self-governing group – an empowering thing, she said.
“I couldn’t have done this on my own,” she said of the assistance from the CWS-supported program run in cooperation with Christian Center for Integrated Development.