Haiti FiscalYear

Oct 1, 2013 — Sept 30,2014

VINCENTIAN FAMILY HAITI INITIATIVE

Vincentian creativity at work inHaiti

2014 ANNUALREPORT

Letter from the InternationalCoordinator

Highlights

  • Graduated 290womenfrom provenpovertyalleviationprogram.
  • 30% increase in assetsof150 women living inruralHaiti.
  • Constructed 75 homesand150 latrines for womeninpoverty alleviationpro-gram

DearFriends,

2014 has been a yearoftransition for us. AstheLaHoye fish farmmovedfrom a dream to abusi-ness reality, we havelaidthe foundation for thesus-tainability of ourprojectsin Haiti: adopting theHai-tian fiscal year,developing

personnel policies,andpositioning ourVFHIFoundation toshoulderthe demands thisgrowthwillentail.

Last year also markedtheend of our first threeyearStrategic Plan. TheVFHICommission hasbegunthe process ofdeveloping

a new plan, based onthelessons learned thesepastyears and buildinguponwhat we haveaccom-plished.

We hope to finalize thenewPlan by the start of thenextfiscalyear.

Fr.JoeAgostino,CM

  • Began constructionon

Tilapia Farm in the CentralPlateau

Tilapia Farm toproduce50,000 pounds of fishanddozens oflivelihoods.

  • Trained 22vocationalstudents throughconstruc-tion of Tilapia Farmadmin-istrative offices whosuc-cessfully passed stateex-ams and graduatedfromprogram.
  • Completed baselinesurveyof 389 households,com-prised of 995 adultsand1109 children in newser-vice area obtainingvalua-ble information forrender-ing futureservices.
  • Offered andacceptedmembership onsteeringcommittee forproposedHaiti Education FundandPlanning Committeeforprimary andsecondaryschools.
  • Fed 4,200 studentsdaily.
  • Began a schoolevaluationprocess to developindivid-ualized SchoolImprove-ment Plans with 3-5yearobjectives.

In January 2015breederfish and fingerlings willbeplaced in 6 basins and10floating cages toproduce50,000lbs of fish.Locat-ed in Savanne Perdue,LaHoye, Central Plateau,anarea with extremepoten-tial but withoutgovern-ment services suchaselectricity and sewersys-tems.

VFHI’s long-term goalisto become aneconomichub creating stabilitywitha hybrid approachtack-ling economic andpsy-chological effects ofpov-erty. VFHIpartneredwith a vocationalschoolrun by Zanmi Agrikol,theagricultural arm ofPart-ners in Health, tocon-struct theadministrativeoffices of thefarm.

In March 2014,VFHIcompleted a baselinesur-vey of 389households.

The direstnon-financialneeds are literacy,cleanwater, latrines, andmedi-calservices.

SurveyHighlights

  • 226 householdslackaccess to latrinesandutilize thewoods.
  • 96 households useun-treated lake waterasdrinkingsource.
  • 273 householdshavefertile land but 118donot use due tofinancialconstraints.
  • Of 995 adults, only579are employed, only 65inthe formalsector.

VFHI projects ayearlycash flow of $200,000intothe local economy bythethird year ofoperation.

VFHI plans tocontractmothers in the areaasresellers of the fish.Given,the dire circumstancesofultra-poverty, thesewom-en are ill- prepared toberesellers.

VFHI will partneragainwith Fonkoze tolaunchthe proven povertyallevia-tion program for theultra-poor providing thema

latrine, water purifier,andbusiness training.ChemenLavi Miyò (CLM) or“Pathwayto a better life”costs

$1,500 per familyourgoal is to fund 150fami-lies with$225,000.

Administrative offices,LaHoye

We ask for yourgenerosity,to support Haitianfamilies.

Please make checkspayableto:

Vincentian Family HaitiIniti-ative

c/o Congregation of theMis-sion

500 East CheltenAvenuePhiladelphia, PA19144

Thankyouforyourkindsup-port.

Education Program inHaiti

Launched in October2013,our education programtack-les hunger andeducationimprovement. Incollabora-tion with Mary’s Meals,aninternationalanti-hungermovement, we feed14schools in the CentralPlat-eau. Separately, we feed3

SaintAnneschoolstudents,Thomazeau

Vincentian schools inPort-au-Prince. Daily wefeed

4,200 students from Kindergarten toHigh-School.

Initial results of the feeding program indicate significantim-pact on enrollment and presence. Prior to the start ofthefeeding program, 30% of students would notcom-plete the school day due to hunger. Currently, allstu-dents complete the day even though 59% come toschoolon an empty stomach and 47% do not have dinner athome.

Building on the current school relationship, we areassistingin a multilevel participatory school evaluation process.Eachschool community will create a common vision developingaSchool Improvement Plan defining objectives for 3-5years.Our efforts will focus on monitoring the implementation.Ad-ditionally, Vincentian charism training will be implementedforVincentian priest schools inPort-au-Prince.

CLM Cohorts Succeed in CentralPlateau

The VFHI isproudto announcethegraduation ofourfirst ChemenLaviMiyò (CLM) orPath-way to a BetterLifecohort inFebruary2014. 290 outof

the original300membersgradu-ated. This 18month povertyalle-viation program is

CLMgraduatesproudlyshowdiplomas

directedbyourpartnerFonkoze,amicrofinanceinstitutionwith vast experience in rural Haiti. Nearly 3,000 women’sliveshave been changed through thisprogram.

Our second cohort of 140 members located inGranBoukan reached its 9th of 18 months. Some of theachieve-ments so far include: construction of 75 houses,completionof all latrines and organization of a mobile medical clinic atanearby public school. Early in the program, 321 goats,125pigs, 198 chickens and 24 turkeys were distributed topartici-pants, assets have already increased by30%.