REACH project trained a total of 129 new CAHWs and offered refresher training to 590 others initially trained by the Ministry of Agriculture and are all working in the communities we serve. The CAHWs went through 300 hours total of training: 210 hours of theory, 40 hours of practice and 50 hours of field and individual field practice. The training period runs for six weeks which are divided in two periods of three weeks each. In between the two periods additional field practice and each Vet Agent is required to pass on the training to an average of 200 farmers via practical demonstrations.

The first official animal mobile clinic was launched in March 2014, in Maïssade commune in the Central Plateau region. As of now, together with trained CAHWs Heifer immunized and treated 512 animals –goats, cows, mules, horses, donkeys and pigs- for 300 families. In the next three months we plan to conduct four more animal mobile clinics national wide. In the past the mobile clinics were conducted in Dondon, Northern region and Paillant in the Nippes as part of the CAHWs practical training.

As part of the social transformation of the communities REACH is developing a rural leadership program to empower the rural youth and encourage more participation. Together with the community organizations, REACH is working with young farmers to assist them to own their own small farming businesses, and to work together to support each other and market collectively – as successful small farmers. This is a means of job creation in an effort to rebuild a stronger and better Haiti.

REACH is also focusing on empowering women in Haiti through livestock ownership, training, micro-finance, savings groups and small business development to ensure they have a voice in the community. This will sustain them to be become self-sufficient and give them a sense of dignity. Currently Heifer is working with seven local women organizations and women participation in the REACH project is at 54%.

Haiti suffers long spells of dry season causing severe drought in the country. In light of this situation, Heifer Haiti has placed special importance to provide reliable water supply to the communities we work with. Through the REACH project, we have been distributing to families water pumps, building water cisterns and water reservoirs.

Heifer is currently seeking partnership opportunities with other international organizations to provide potable and irrigation water to the communities we serve.

Heifer International Haiti, through REACH will continue to distribute to families the gifts of livestock animals and seeds for food crop production. The project views families as production units, with a greater emphasis on seeing themselves as producers and not just consumers.

One of the challenges facing the communities is storage of seeds for the next planting season. Heifer is taking a direct approach to provide long-term solutions through providing the communities with seed banks. The seed banks will safe guard the communities against catastrophic events that are prone in Haiti and also promote collective responsibility of saving for the future as opposed to using all the resources at the same time.