| Haiti
drought and it's effects http://www.haitian-truth.org/the-country-hit-by-the-worst-drought-in-35-years/ |
| and now the spectacular Haitien Paints have stopped
because they can no longer afford to buy paint: see some here http://www.lngplants.com/HaitiPaintings.html |
SEED BANKHaitian Children’s Fund, Inc, a California 501(c)3 charitable corporation, created in 1983. Haiti is sliding into an extremely desperate situation brought on by nature and man. The ongoing world dry spell has threated 70% of Haiti’s already miserable crops. This magnifies the ecological disaster while a lack of seed stock will deliver a coup de grace to the proud Haitian peasant who has fought quietly for survival over the generations. We cannot do anything about the weather. We can accumulate and distribute seeds and supporting elements that will allow an ongoing battle against sometimes overwhelming odds. Many are going to die. Some have already slipped away, unnoticed and unremarked in Haiti’s Northwest. The sooner something can be done, the better – since the spring planting season is almost upon us. REAL NEEDS TO COMBAT DISASTER We need seeds, of all types. The existing seed stock, where available, is many generations old and sees very low germination rate. Some types of seeds have not been available for years. Hybrid seeds have flooded the world, making a peasant sector’s survival, such as is found in Haiti, impossible. Haitians gather seeds, from each crop, for planting in the next season. Hybrids are one shot efforts, requiring new seed stock each cycle. Haitians cannot afford this. Hybrids work for such vegetables as carrots, beets, turnips, where the peasant does not gather seeds, but open pollination seeds are needed for melons, tomatoes, peppers, etc., allowing collection of seeds, from one season for use in the next, and so on. There is also a need for new Seed Potatoes since the existing stock is so many generations old that the produce looks like radishes instead of full-sized vegetables. Fertilizer is also an important factor, in reviving our agricultural output. The soil has been overworked, taking needed minerals from the land. Bulk fertilizer can be shipped from the States, or Canada. Bug Spray is really needed to fight pest. Supporting elements such as rakes, hoes, shovels, wheelbarrows would do much to help our peasants. SEED AVAILABILITY 
Some years ago, I did a lot of research on sources for seeds. Seed potatoes can be acquired in the American Northwest – Idaho, Oregon, of from Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Vegetable seeds are available from various growing centers in California, Texas and Florida. European countries, such as the Netherlands, have stock suitable for Haiti. Bulk quantities can be accumulated from several sources, for transport to Haiti. SEED DISTRIBUTION Free is always neat, but the Haitian peasant is not looking for a hand-out. We plan to sell the seeds to the peasant farmers for their actual cost, perpetuating the project, rather than bleeding it into non-existence. Funds generated will go to buy new stock, so the concept can run to infinity. Volunteers will staff the distribution centers when required. We already have a building from which to operate. COORDINATING STRUCTURE We will operate under The Haitian Children’s Fund, Inc, a California 501(c)3 charitable corporation, created in 1983. |
STARVATION STALK HAITI’S PEASANT POPULATION"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day; teach him how to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime," We can paraphrase this old saying to fit Haiti. “Give a peasant some vegetables and he will eat for a day. Give him seeds and he will eat for a lifetime.” This concept applies to Haiti’s massive peasant majority, spread throughout the Nation’s countryside. Their situation is desperate. In some areas people are starving to death, within 600 miles of Cape Canaveral. Seed stocks have diminished, over the years, and existing inventory is so many generations beyond the original that germination rate are minimal and those that do grow, produce very poor products. Some seed varieties have been unavailable for years. At the moment, American seeds supplied to Haiti are often time-expired material that have low, low germination rates. Our Seed Potato stock is so tired that the potatoes could be mistaken for radishes in size. Coupled with this situation, Haiti is faced with the worst drought in many years. We hope to generate enough support to start an attack on the nationwide shortage of vegetable seeds, so the Nation can feed itself. The solution will not be attained overnight, but we must start somewhere. Charlie Bartholomew, an old friend, and resident of Minneapolis, is going to focus on our seed situation in Haiti. Since you are operating in Minneapolis, and have a focus on Haiti, I have passed your contact information along to him in the hope that there might be some areas of mutual support. Hope to see you all helping soon, Lynn Garrison |
| Paints
and Painting The art community has literally died since the earthquake. It has no supplies with which to work. I have wanted to use Carolle's store - where we had an art supply shop - for the same purpose again. 
Need paints, brushes, canvass, etc. I had great volume deals with all the suppliers, but ran out of money. We bought the stuff and basically sold it to the artists at cost. ACRYLICS: We used Daler-Rowney System 3 Liquitex - BASIC Grumbacher Academy OIL: Daler-Rowney Georgian Winsor-Newton Oils We bought rolls of Duck canvas and cut it into pieces. Paint brushes of several qualities. The earthquake really derailed everything. |
| SATELLITE
SCHOOL SYSTEM “Education for all children” is the dream of our Nation. Unfortunately, the realities of our life have not yet allowed this dream to reach fruition. Fortunately, the Haitian Children’s Fund created the SATELLITE SCHOOL SYSTEM which now offers an opportunity to achieve this goal by making it possible to transmit lessons, created by Haiti’s most highly qualified educators, to any location in our 10 departments, whether a school is located in Bombardopolis, Anse Rouge, Jacmel, or even in downtown Port-au-Prince. In fact, one could toss a dart at the map of Haiti and, no matter where it landed, you could place one of our schools receiving satellite modules at its point of impact. The Satellite School System will transmit both academic lessons and alternative training modules. The system is the reliable and state-of-the-art conduit; it requires exceptional content in order to fulfill the vision of our national dream. A number of foreign universities and other organizations have shown a keen interest in creating lesson plans for use in our program. As just one example, l’Ecole de Choix (Mirebalais), which provides high quality tri-lingual elementary education aligned with the Haitian National Curriculum, is prepared to serve as a pilot content partner. The Satellite School System, therefore, relieves one of the most significant limiting factors in our nation’s educational system – the shortage of qualified teachers – by transmitting quality educational programming potentially to every classroom in our country. A trained educational facilitator is present in each local classroom to supervise classes while the national system continues to develop a trained educator academy to overcome this significant hurdle. Detailed planning for this project began in February, 2012, and it is now operational. Our partner, On Call Communications, one of the world’s leading providers of satellite transmission solutions, has created the world’s first national network of satellite-transmitted educational material, Elements, for the entire uplink system; three demonstration classrooms, shipped from Miami on May 31, 2013. Overcoming one major impediment to initiating the plan, On Call Communications has obtained the donation of satellite bandwidth on an INTELSAT satellite that otherwise would have cost $23,000 / month. Intelsat, based in Washington, D.C., is the largest provider of satellite services worldwide. The Satellite School System consists of three vital elements: • The Satellite Uplink System will transmit material over our network, utilizing a top line satellite dish antenna and electronics to provide world class service. • The Uplink will bounce lessons of the Intelsat satellite, 23,000 miles above earth, to our school receiver modules. Each of these will have a dish antenna, receiver and wide-screen TV, powered by a solar panel array, charging batteries through an inverter system. This system will have a 24-hour / day operational capability with normal daylight conditions. • We will establish a video studio in which to tape and edit material for transmission. The SATELLITE SCHOOL SYSTEM will become a window of opportunity for Haiti’s children, and a showcase for Haiti to the world. CAROLLE TRANCHANT PRESIDENT HAITIAN CHILDREN’S FUND Founded in 1984 VOIP 305-407-1580 011-509-3612-1707 haitipro@bellsouth.net THE BASIC SYSTEM, A TRANSMITTER, UPLINK – TIED TO GALAXY 25 - AND 3 DOWNLINK RECEIVERS WERE ESTABLISHED DECEMBER 7, 2013. |