The New Year always brings a time of reflection on the past year and hopes for the one to come. Looking back on 2011, Partners of the Americas and Makouti Agro Enterprise would like to say a big Thank You to all of the donors who have helped improve nutrition and livelihoods in Grand Boulage, a mountain village in Haiti. Your generous donations are making a difference in Haiti!

This project has had a great deal of success in Grand Boulage, and in planning for the future stages, we are focusing on building upon what is working well, and trying to make more market linkages to ensure sustainable sources of income for the families in the future. One of our main objectives for the first trimester of 2012 is to produce and sell a minimum of 25 rabbits per week at local markets in Port-au-Prince. Rabbit production continues to be a popular activity among the farmers in Haiti, since a successful rabbitry brings a lean, high-quality source of protein as well as potential for sales and income.

To achieve this objective, Makouti Agro Enterprise plans to create a network around Port-au-Prince, to include Grand Boulage and the communities of Croix des Bouquets, Sibert, and Kenskoff, which are closer to the city and have had some past related experience with animal-raising. They will help set up a cooperative system and to convene producers and community members, along with agronomy students and perhaps agricultural ministry representatives, to share best practices and management techniques.

Recently, ten cages have been distributed to women in Sibert. There has been an increased in focus on women beneficiaries, as women are critical to family nutrition and have proven to be more successful in managing the rabbitries. The work has already begun on the construction of 2 new rabbitry structures in Grand Boulage. Together with 2 structures provided by the Friends of Haiti, that community will have a total of 10 high-quality structures.

The Feeding Families project continues to work hand-in-hand with other programs and organizations, such as the Farmer to Farmer Program and the Friends of Haiti. In the last quarter of 2011, Farmer to Farmer continued to focus on providing training to community members in the care and disease prevention in goats and rabbits, and Friends of Haiti took the lead in composting, reforestation training, and preparing hundreds of seedlings (cede, orange, and chadeque/grapefruit) for planting.

Together and with your help, we can help make 2012 a hopeful and productive year for these families in Haiti!