CODEP  |  Agriculture Development  |  Fish Development
    

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere!  It has the 3rd-highest hunger rate in world (trails Somalia and Afghanistan). Haiti's malnutrition rate is higher than Sudan; its life expectancy is lower than Sudan. More people live in Absolute Poverty (under $1/day) in Haiti than in the war-ravaged Congo. By comparison 12% of Haiti's children die before age 5; 0.8% in USA!

 
Haiti is in an ecological crisis! Over the last 14 years, 90 % of Haiti's trees have been lost; mostly cut for sale to be used as fuel source. As a result, most topsoil has washed from hills and mountains silting streams and rivers and contaminating the Sea. Farms are abandoned, water supplies contaminated, and sanitary conditions horrible.



Haiti's abundant tropical rainfall (90-100”/ year) goes unabsorbed (soil absorbs only 9”/year). Flooding is prolific. Famine conditions exist (1 in 3 children malnourished). Haiti's secondary road system has been in an economic and political crisis! Emergency food and shelter help is very limited. Violence has existed in the streets. Unemployment exceeds 75% and the economy is dead ((GNP lost 1%/yr past 5 years)! Despite an average daily wage of $1.80 per hour, industrialization does not exist.Huge infrastructure limitations prevail in utilities, fuel, transportation, education, etc.

The 2010 earthquake brought forth astounding generosity from people all over the world hoping to save lives that are in jeopardy as a result of the Haitian crisis. About 50% of US households made donations to the charitable efforts for relief. Governments have now pledged billions of dollars  to the cause.

Most people realize that the magnitude of the Haiti disaster was a direct result of the wretched poverty that has plagued Haiti’s citizens for 50 years. Over these years millions of dollars have flowed into Haiti from public and private sources providing mostly stop gap measures to ease the shortages of food, water, shelter, clothing, etc

Leaders the world over are facing the reality that the solution for Haiti is jobs! Creation of jobs that eradicate Haiti’s addiction to charity is the only way Haiti can escape the cycle of poverty to calamity to destruction.

The Social Enterprise Fund, Inc was formed in 2007  with a goal of removing people from the poverty roles in Haiti by creating sustainable jobs. Finding over 80% of eligible workers unemployed in Haiti SEF quickly gravitated to two areas which seemed to provide “low hanging fruit” in the quest for economic security for Haitians: reforestation and fish farming.

The Social Enterprise Fund Supports three projects in Haiti:

• Caribbean Harvest- With Dr.  Val Abe SEF established this CO-OP project for tilapia Fish Farming in 2006 to create 500 new jobs in 7 villages around Lake Azuei. Projects are underway to complete this Lake Azeui in 2011-12 and expand to Lake Peligre in the central plateau. Future plans call for an Ocean Fish Development project in Southern Haiti at Port St. Louis near Les Cayes.
  
  
• CODEP - providing fund raising and other assistance to the organization which operates CODEP, the most successful agricultural and community development project in Haiti. CODEP serves 3 major watersheds in a mountainous region south of Leogone.
   
• Haiti Agriculture Development Project - providing leadership and funding for an aggressive Agricultural Development Program in in rural Haiti partnered with the Episcopal Church of Haiti and the Presbyterian Church (USA ). This project will mirror the operations of the CODEP program and be led by CODEP’s successful former Director.