GADRU

My first visit is to GADRU, an organisation that provides communities with training in sustainable agriculture and ways to prevent further soil erosion.

Jerome, the Director of Programmes at GADRU, and I left early from Port au Prince for an eight hour drive by jeep to Mombim Crochu in the interior of Haiti. We were joined on the journey by Suzette, a specialist in soil management and the production of crops, who came along to translate Creole for me.

Over the last year, SCIAF has been funding a project in the communities around the village of Mombim Crochu to improve agricultural production and prevent erosion by creating live barriers of pineapple and sugar cane and planting new forests on the steep hillsides. By producing more, and a greater variety of crops, as well as rearing animals for sale, families will have enough to eat and will be able to generate a small income to pay for school fees and medical costs.

Around 40% of Haitians have no access to health or education services and are forced to pay for private health care and education. Many poor families rely on charity or go without.

The government remains desperately short of resources and is still struggling to repay the crippling debts run up during the brutal dictatorship of Dr Francois Duvalier, better known as Papa Doc, who ruled from 1957 until his death in 1971. It was an era in which thousands were tortured and murdered and there was practically no investment in basic services. More recently in 1990, hundreds of millions of pounds of aid were vetoed by the US on the basis of “election irregularities” when the socialist President Aristede was elected with an overwhelming landslide.

Now, there is a glimmer of hope as, with a new government in place, steps are being taken to reduce debt repayments. SCIAF will be supporting local organisations as they put pressure on the Haitian government to use the debt reduction savings for the expansion of health services, water and education that have been denied to the majority of Haitians for so long.

Leaving the teeming activity of Port au Prince behind, we take the new road being constructed by EU funding. We pass dirt floored houses with banana thatch or tin roofs, patched with plastic sheeting and wooden boards. Women and children walk along endless stretches of baking hot roads with huge sacks of charcoal and fire wood or with metal basins balanced on their heads. Women with colourful head scarves sit side-saddle on mules laden with plantains.

As we climb into the hills the shortage of water is clear - for a few miles on either side of each village, children as young as three carry assorted containers back to their homes. I’m struck by the sheer numbers of children. They line the streets in every village, watch us from every house and stare as they pass on their way to school wearing their colourful uniforms.