Hope in Crisis: Ensure Children in Haiti Eat Today
In a time of civil unrest and food uncertainty, you could be the person who ensures that a child gets at least one meal a day.
Gangs are wreaking havoc in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the surrounding areas. Many people are not able to procure enough food for their families to eat every day, and clean water is scarce. And things are only getting worse.
GreaterGood has been working with the Matènwa Community Learning Center in Haiti for several years to give Haitian children access to a high-quality education in their native Creole language. But now Matènwa needs our support more than ever to keep its students fed.
Matènwa is located on Lagonav Island, very close to Port-au-Prince. Most of their food comes from the mainland. “Gang checkpoints make the travel expensive, which then gets put on the food prices,” reports Matènwa’s Chris Low. “And the risk is so high that not everyone is willing to brave being stopped by pirates.”
Food stores are running low on the island, and the prices of the available food are 2 or 3 times more than they should be. Low says this has been going on for about three years now, but it has gotten increasingly worse.
For many of the 330 school children at Matènwa, school breakfast is the only meal they get in a day. Now that food suppliers are charging so much, Matènwa is only able to feed the children about half of what they used to. The school is working to grow their own food, but it is not harvest time yet.
Low continues, “The situation is bad. We are just trying to raise enough money so the school can continue to meet the demand despite the hike in prices.”
Matènwa is educating and nourishing the next generation of leaders, but they can’t do it alone. You can help a student in Haiti get one square meal a day by participating in the Matènwa Breakfast program. For $30 a month, you can sponsor one child and ensure that he or she is able to eat a nutritious meal at least once a day for a month. That’s just $1 a day!
Your monthly gift to our Subscribe to Good program can help a child stay in school, sheltered from the horrors going on around them as they work on the critical thinking skills they’ll need to someday change their world for the better.
Will you be there to support a student in need today with a recurring financial gift? These children cannot wait – they need caring donors like you to help them get nutritious food today and every day, so they can continue to survive and thrive despite the desperate conditions surrounding them. Please donate now!
Thank you for your support! Mèsi anpil!
May 2024 Update:
May 1st was Agriculture and Labor Day in Haiti. It was a bittersweet one this year, but the local farmers still managed to prepare some traditional cuisine to celebrate, and Matènwa students and staff planted saplings and sang songs. Community members discussed how they might be able to bring back plants that have disappeared from Lagonav, including lemons, limes, and palms. There was happiness, peace, and hope, even in this time of fear and impending famine.
Greater Good Charities has ultimate authority and discretion with regard to the distribution of its funds. All expenditures made are consistent with the exempt purposes of Greater Good Charities.
