Once prosperous and heavily wooded, Haiti now stands stripped of the forests that fuelled its lumber industry decades ago. Deforestation created a cycle of poverty and illness as storms and floods washed away the fertile soil, unprotected by trees, depleting croplands and leaving rural families impoverished and felling more trees to sell for firewood.
Legatum’s grant of over USD 1 million to the North Haiti Environment and Economic Empowerment Initiative breaks the cycle by attacking its causes as well as effects. Farmers learn to protect their croplands from erosion and depletion, while producing more food for their families and crops for sale; female entrepreneurs grow their businesses with the help of loans and training and are in a better position to provide for their families. Disease and infant mortality will be reduced in 10 rural communities thanks to health education, new latrines, clean water supplies and improved health services such as immunisation, enabling thousands of people to live healthier, more productive lives.
In all, between 20,000 and 30,000 lives will be changed by these complementary programmes to restore a damaged ecology, while improving health and quality of life in rural Haiti.