Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

This could be an way to put all those photos to work and make a few dollars for Makouti or another project in Haiti. Haiti is loaded with entrepreneurs. Go to the website and check it out. http://www.sevenfund.org/entrepreneur-image/index.php “I Am An Entrepreneur” Photo Competition Contest details Cambridge, MA – December 1, 2009 – The SEVEN Fund is pleased to announce the ‘I Am an Entrepreneur’ photography competition. This competition recognizes the outstanding use of photography to tell compelling stories of role model entrepreneurs from around the world. Anyone is welcome to participate in this competition. The competition will award twelve (12) prizes, one per month, over a period of one year. Each month, one finalist will be selected and will receive a prize of $100. The grand prize winner (selected from among the 12 finalist photographs) will receive $1,000 at the end of the year. Often, the imagery associated with developing nations captures the misery that accompanies pov...

Guyana's Kaieteur News Online published an article on December 12 which tells the story of a farmer from Hauraruni who is prospering, despite poor soil, with the help of a new hydroponics system and support from Farmer to Farmer volunteers and local organizations. The full article, "Highway farmer grows food where soil is no good", can be read here: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/12/12/highway-farmer-grows-food-where-soil-is-no-good/ In the spring of 2009 Farmer to Farmer volunteer Grady Sampson, from Clemson University, traveled to assist farmers with the hydroponics system. Grady was recruited by Partners of the Americas' Mississippi Chapter, which is partnered with the Guyana Chapter of Partners of the Americas.

Haiti is currently facing an outbreak of Teschen Disease in its pigs. This is like polio for pigs. It is NOT contagious to humans but humans can spread the disease. As a volunteer travelling in Haiti you do risk accidently bringing this disease back to the USA if you are not careful. Therefore it is important that you wash your hands well after handling animals or soil. I carry disinfectant wipes with me since soap and water are not always easy to find. I also clean and disinfect my shoes if I think I may have been in contact with a contaminated area. I always do this the night before I leave Haiti and again when I get home. All my travel clothes go straight into the washing machine. I am not telling you this to discourage you or to make you paranoid. As a veterinarian working with FTF in Haiti for 3 years, I have my hands literally in lots of diseases. I am also a farmer in California which makes me a high risk traveler and a potential threat to our food chain and my personal farm...

We are wrapping up a two week training process in the D.R. before heading off for a week in Haiti. Our assignment here has been to conduct training sessions in various subjects of organic greenhouse management. We worked with three different local NGO's, each of whom has projects in greenhouse cultivation of sweet bell peppers. The greenhouses are operated by groups of 3-10 growers who work cooperatively. Depending upon the organization, the groups are either comprised exclusively of women, or made up of a mixture of men and women. Each of the three different NGO's with whom we collaborated had its own position on organic practices, ranging from those who were interested in adopting some organic methods as a means of reducing production costs to those who were committed to natural resource conservation and see organic production as a means of achieving that goal. We introduced a range of subjects during our meetings with growers. Topics such as organic foliar feeding ap...