A Message from Kathie Culhane-Pera, who recently traveled to Haiti as part of a successful week-long medical mission trip. A few pictures from Kathie's trip are seen below. They are in order of appearance: 

• 46 farmers who shared their stories
• Woman headloading tree saplings
• Man preparing hole for tree saplings
• Woman planting tree saplings
• Floresta-Haiti workers in Fonds-Verrettes
  

"I send my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has talked to me about my May 9th sermon. I greatly appreciate your support, and realize how much I benefited from the opportunity to be able to share my thoughts with everyone so soon after my trip; that was a great gift to me. This coming Sunday, May 23rd, I will show slides and talk more about Floresta-Haiti's work in Fonds-Verrettes. Included here are a few pictures of farmers planting trees in Fonds-Verrettes.

Also, this Sunday, May 23rd, is the final day of the Global MIssion in Haiti Campaign. Please complete your promise card, for however much you can give, keeping in mind that the Millennium Development Goals encourages everyone to give 0.7% of their income to reduce extreme poverty by 2015. I know that our money will make a significant difference as the Haitian people in Fonds-Verrettes use the funds to improve the environment and improve their lives. Thanks ever so much for joining St Clements, as we partner with people in Fonds-Verrettes to do God's work in Haiti."

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Haitian earthquake 1/12/2010:
As we process and grieve the results of the destructive earthquake in Haiti, we will be keeping in touch with our Haiti mission partner; Floresta/Plant with Purpose.  Here is a link to their blog that gives up date information of their involvement in Haiti.(www.plantwithpurpose.blogspot.com ). 

If you want to give financially to help recovery in Haiti, there are a number of organizations already doing fine work there that are seeking donations.  Episcopal Relief and Development is one very effective way to donate - ERD has been serving those in crises for many years, and already has stable organizations on the ground in Haiti.  Money donated through ERD goes directly to those in need.  You can donate and find out more information on line:  http://www.er-d.org/.  Another blog to follow belongs the The Episcopal Church's missionary in Haiti, the Rev. Lauren Stanley. Her site is http://www.gointotheworld.net/

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We are excited to announce that on Saturday evening, August 29, the parishioners of St. Clement's endorsed a plan to work with Floresta in Fonds Verrette, a watershed area of Haiti along the Dominican Republic border, located about three hours from Port-au-Prince. We met with Mr. Scott Sabin, the executive director of Floresta, who personally delivered a proposal recommending that St. Clement's focus on this region where Floresta has begun community development work with twelve communities. The Haitian Floresta workers feel that the local communities and five local churches are engaged and ready to implement an extensive and integrated program of sustainable agriculture, agro-forestry, animal vaccinations, and micro-loans.The detailed proposal will be on our church website. If you haven't remitted your promised amount, please do so by October 15, 2009, so we can send the money to Floresta. The next MDG committee meeting is Sunday September 20th, 12;00-1:15; please come to participate in the committee, including chosing new committee leaders.

 The parishioners who met Friday June 5th had a fruitful discussion and exchange about the strengths of the Final Four proposed projects and decided to embrace Floresta. We will be continuing to meet through the summer and the fall to move this project forward, so stay tuned for more information.

You can learn about Floresta by reading the information below (presented at the June 5th meeting and in GOOGLE GROUPS) and by visiting the Floresta website.

FLORESTA – June 5, 2009

1. What is the mission of this organization?

Floresta, a Christian non-profit organization, reverses poverty and deforestation in the world, by transforming the lives of the rural poor. We plant, we teach, we create enterprise and we share the Gospel.

2. How long has it been in existence and how big is its annual budget (if available)?

Began work in the Dominican Republic in 1984. Invited into Haiti by an Episcopal priest in 1995. Annual budget: $1.5 million (2007); four stars, according to charitynavigator.org3. How does this organization provide a sustainable, systemic solution to poverty?

On their website, they make the case for environmental degradation leading to intense suffering for the rural poor (starvation, diseases that strike because the people are weakened, etc.). Therefore, working to make the land more sustainable for the people it supports is an overall goal. They educate villages in farming but also in business, help with microloans, and other development.

From a response provided by Floresta’s director:

“We choose to focus on the following three areas: spiritual, economic, and environment. We do this because we believe we are able to make better use of our resources and expertise, and therefore have a greater measurable impact. We also believe that these three areas impact or are directly related to many other areas. For example, quality of water supply is influenced by quality of the environment.

“Spiritual: Our emphasis is on discipleship and long-term relationships. Our goal is to assist communities and church leaders in their spiritual growth and partner with local churches to increase their capacity to be agents of change in the communities where they are living. We are very clear that participation in the spiritual activities of Floresta is not a requirement to receive our services. The love and the opportunities we are sharing are unconditional. We do not want anyone to feel coerced to accept something that is not in their heart. At the same time we make it easy for people to seek out the gospel and understand the source of our love.

“Economic: We work with communities with the goal of increasing household income and families' abilities to meet their own economic needs now and in the future. Various Floresta programs use a variety of techniques to address this such as savings and loans groups, microloans, business and leadership training, improved farming techniques, increased crop diversity, development of alternative sources of income, and improved marketing. We try to avoid direct economic assistance, and try to put the emphasis on creating the conditions for communities to improve their own economic situation.

“Environment: We want to improve the ability of communities to protect and care for their own environment, while allowing economic needs to be met. Ideally, we look for solutions which will improve the environment while simultaneously increasing income. Approaches which have been adopted in various Floresta programs include community economic groups or associations, microloans, agroforestry, soil conservation, organic agriculture, improved animal husbandry, improved cooking stoves, backyard tree nurseries and cover cropping.

“We also believe that these three areas, spiritual, economic, and environment are strongly linked, with each having a significant effect on the other two. Any given activity or technology may be targeted at improving one of the three conditions, but ideally, at Floresta we are looking for activities or technologies which are integrated, or target all three areas at the same time.”

4. How does this organization address gender equity and the empowerment of women by targeting education and micro-financing?

From a response provided by Floresta’s director:

“Gender equity is an important goal of Floresta’s work as we strive to transform the lives of the rural poor. Numerous programs are designed specifically with women’s empowerment in mind, particularly in Haiti.

“One example of the types of business that have been established as a result of the Floresta micro-lending program is the story of Rosemata Lochard from the community of Davi. Rosemata has been a member of Floresta’s Davi cooperative since 2003. She has also received loans, which she has used to buy and plant beans, raise a turkey (which increased in value from $3 to $17!), and buy chickens. Rosemata is thrilled with the work Floresta is doing in her area. ‘Floresta is helping the country develop,’ said Rosemata. ‘It is for the good of the community they are working. There is nothing on earth that would make me quit Floresta.’

“Another participant, Cléonne Ibreille has been a member of the Kavanak group since 2003. She makes handicrafts and does embroidery and handbags for women. She has received training from Floresta on grafting, compost, living barriers, rock barriers, Biblical training, and public speaking. She has received credit from Floresta twice. With this money she has rented 2 pieces of land. She has paid back these loans with the crops produced on the rented land.

“Other examples of small businesses started by Floresta beneficiaries in Haiti include bakeries, vegetable and egg stands, resale shops and small grocery stores.”

5. How does this organization promote environmental sustainability?

It is a main goal. Through educating the villages in techniques that prevent soil erosion, agricultural techniques, cistern building, etc., people who had experienced famine now have food sources they are responsible for. See also #2 above.

An example of what Floresta might do is to provide improved cookstoves to families. Improved cookstoves reduce the amount of wood required by a family on a monthly basis. This reduces the cost of cooking, either in time used to collect wood, or cash spent to purchase wood, while at the same time decreasing the pressure on the local wood supply and therefore decreasing the rate of deforestation. It also creates more time for families, especially women, to do other things, including small business development. As a result, quality of life improves and also permits more time for focusing on church life or spiritual growth. Thus all three areas, spiritual, economic, and environment are addressed.

6. How does this organization give us the opportunity for an ongoing relationship beyond just this year? (What would be required of St. Clement's parishioners in terms of time, energy, responsibility? Would you describe our required involvement as intensive, moderate or minimal? Would we have to travel to initiative the partnership? Could we travel in the future to enrich our relationships? What types of activities might St. Clement's parishioners engage in?)

Floresta works with a village for 7-12 years and we could be involved for the length of that time.

From a response provided by Floresta’s director:

“There is a wide variety of ways that partnerships are handled between churches and villages. There are several church partnerships with Mexican villages where the churches visit every year. Other churches sponsor villages but don’t choose to include visits. We are very encouraging of visits and relationship-building between a church and a village, but because of staffing limitations we can only handle a limited number of visits. Right now we do not have a church that visits Haiti regularly, so we would really welcome your participation there.

“In terms of the timing of the partnership, there are a couple of ways that this could be approached. My suggestion would be to start with a general partnership in the region where Floresta works, and then plan a visit as a way to focus that partnership and begin to build a face-to-face relationship with the community and explore the best direction for the partnership. We would also want to consult with our Haitian staff as to a village that they think would be a good fit in terms of the kind of involvement you would like. Communities are very open to building relationships with churches from the US, though we have only done a few in Haiti because very often folks in the US are reluctant to travel there. Exactly what the partnership looks like varies depending on the needs of the community and the interests of the US church. In the past, partnerships have included visiting groups participating in the work of a local medical clinic, doing small business skills training, teaching new crafting skills to increase income and participating in local reforestation and soil conservation efforts. But even beyond these projects, communities tell us that what they value the opportunity to build a relationship with a church community from the US, and to be able to share with others the progress that they have made in improving their own community.

7. How much are local citizens involved in the project? (Could the local citizens in this country/region travel to visit us?)

From a response provided by Floresta’s director:

“Our village groups range from 20-120 people participating. What percentage of a village this represents varies widely depending on the size of the village. When a village has developed to the extent that its economic, environmental, and spiritual needs are being met, we begin to discuss with group leaders a timeline for moving on to other villages. Many more villages are requesting our help than we have resources available, so we are always in the process of helping villages develop, so that we can move on and address the most urgent needs elsewhere.

“In terms of putting a local face on things, local Haitian church leadership is essential and an important part of our relationship to the community. One challenge we face, however, is that priests are frequently transferred to different villages. This makes it very important to establish a connection with the community as a whole, to ensure the continuity of our work. So we could suggest villages with strong local church leadership who would be very welcoming, but we would also be sure to build broader participation in the village through our local staff and community leaders.”

8. What could we expect our donation to be spent on?

From a response provided by Floresta’s director:

“We have many more villages seeking our help than we have resources, and so as support becomes available it allows us to help more people. Once Floresta begins to work in a village, we commit to being involved for as long as we are needed, and your contribution would ensure the continuity of our work there. It would not necessarily mean that you are making a 7-12 year commitment, though that would be wonderful. Once we start work in a village, we make a commitment to continuing to work there as long as we can continue to find funding and as long as there is a need.

“$7200 (per year) covers every aspect of Floresta’s work in a community, including training in sustainable agriculture, community problem-solving, and leadership training. This would also include administration of loan programs and training in small business skills, the building of soil conservation barriers to reduce erosion and mudslides, special training in new crop varieties, and also costs such as trainer salaries and transportation (transportation tends to be expensive because the poor roads are very hard on vehicles.)

“If you were able to give substantially more the first year, that money could be used to meet pressing needs in the surrounding community. For example, as we move into hurricane season, there is still a great need for watershed restoration and soil conserving barriers to preserve farms and lives. There are also great needs for veterinary assistance and training.”

This page was last modified on June 20, 2010.