Spring 2009 Newsletter — Contents
More Than Just a Grain Mill … p. 1Making Money Out of Honey … p. 2
Member Profile … p. 3
Clean Water Project … p. 4
A Delegation To Remember
By Andy Clarke, DU Intern
Twice a year, the Lambi Fund of Haiti hosts a delegation for donors, board members, and those interested in learning more about Haiti and the work of The Lambi Fund.
The most recent trip was in November of last year. We visited Lambi Fund partners in the Southern Region, including a beekeeping organization, an animal husbandry program, an ox plowing service, and a community agriculture program.
After seeing Haiti, it became very clear that the need there is profound and widespread. Yet it was also apparent that the programs the Lambi Fund is doing are having a visible, tangible impact on the communities where they work.
We travelled through the countryside of Haiti by day, visiting programs, meeting people, and learning how grassroots organizations that Lambi Fund partners with are changing communities in Haiti.
We saw how well organized these groups are, and how the jobs and opportunities created by these programs were bringing not only relative prosperity, but also cohesion to their communities. There was a sense of unity in all the communities that we visited, no doubt fostered by the sense of collaboration and shared responsibility that is part of Lambi Fund programming.
In the evenings, our group retreated to hotels, where we enjoyed Haitian music, ate local food, and reflected on what we had seen and what more we could do to build on this progress.
We even took a much needed afternoon at the beach before heading back to the historic Oloffson Hotel in Port-au-Prince for the night. We laughed, we cried, but mostly we left with a sense of urgency and purpose that comes when one feels like s/he is on the right track, but that there is much, much more work to be done.
