Partnership Request- Food Assistance Urgently Needed- Haiti

St. Dunstan's Carmel has been involved in a 26 year relationship with St. Andres School in Hinche Haiti. 90% of their parish is involved in this ministry in some way! An important part of their support has been the school lunch program, which for many students is the only meal they get in a day. Their funding partner is no longer able to provide assistance. St. Dunstan's is urgently seeking a new funding partner to begin assistance in January of 2009.
Contact Mel Blevins at: mblevens AT comcast.net

To learn more about the history and context of thier ministry read: 26 years with Haiti

Food Assistance Needed - Hinche, Haiti

by Sarah Pease, St. Dunstan's Carmel

In Hinche, a town of about 40,000 in the central plateau of Haiti, the markets are colorful with fresh vegetables and fruit , baskets of rice, eggs and dried fish- even sugar cane pieces to chew for the sweet juice. Walking through the town, you can often see women selling a few bananas and perhaps a woman with a basket of cookies on her head. They are one of the cheapest things in Haiti. Children eating these dark, hard cookies are a regular sight. Food looks plentiful, but it is hard to come by because the prices have shot up astronomically in the last year – 100 – 200 per cent. But the cookies are cheap and plentiful. And easy to make. All you need is a little sugar or a very little milk powder and lots of good, rich Haitian dirt. Nice and dark so the dirt-cookies will look appetizing. Pat it all together with some water and let them dry in the sun. Cookies for sale. A woman interviewed by one of St. Dunstan’s visiting Haiti Ministry members was asked how often her child ate. After a pause, she said quietly, “Maybe…every other day.” A child who has one small meal every other day will have a few dirt cookies to silence that stomach.

The children of St. Andre’s School in Hinche have been lucky to have a good hot lunch every day for the past several years. St. Dunstan’s provided salaries for cooks, bought propane stoves and utensils for this effort and a wonderful private foundation underwrote the food cost. The staff of St Andre’s kept accurate records of the children’s weight and height. They grew amazingly and their scores on national tests shot up. It was astonishing how much learning took place once those stomachs stopped hurting. But the costs of providing the food for this meal have forced Mercy and Sharing, the non-profit foundation who were funding this effort to shut down. A St Dunstan’s parish member has given emergency help which will last through December. St. Dunstan’s is a very small parish and has been raising half the annual cost of St Andre’s – a school of 680 children – for more than twenty years. Help is urgently needed to continue this program. It is our hope that another parish in the Diocese will be interested in partnering with us to provide food for these students for another year.