Haiti: gangs rule the streets, how can we help young people?
Haiti
Over the past year or more, political difficulties have seen Haiti communities steeped in unrest and violence. Gangs rule the streets preventing families from accessing shops to buy food, forcing schools to shut, and there has been regular kidnappings and gun crime.
Thankfully our school has been allowed to remain open to 600 children, and we have been able to provide food packs to desperate families.
But due to the unrest, young people have no job prospects or hope for the future and they are likely to end up in the gangs. We currently support Hope House Haiti school and breakfast club for primary aged children, but we want to expand our support to include these young people and help provide opportunities for them.
We want to start afternoon classes three days a week to offer them a trade such as:
- Baking - working in the bakery to make bread to sell
- Wood working
- Brick laying
- Welding
- Farming
However this does require us to raise an additional £2,000 of funding to enable the teachers to be paid.
We have sent £1000 from CRY towards this ... can you help us to raise the rest of the money needed?
What is new at Hope House Haiti?
A new flock of chickens is doing well on the farm, and in early April they harvested figs, papaya, corn, and two types of honey as a result of recently installing five bee hives. Even though the soil is poor, rains have allowed the crops to grow, and they have planted 101 lime trees and 30 cherry trees. They plan to plant a further 100 lime trees so in 3-4 years time they can sell limes to generate funds.
Some of the vocational classes will train young people to look after the bees and chickens. Once trained, they hope to be able to increase production and create produce to sell, including baked bread and peanut butter.
We are also delighted to have started our wood working training. This will help young people to gain a skill which they can use to make an income in the future.