Giyom /Kafou Tido, Haiti.
6/16/2009
Mislaine Lori is a mother of 5 boys and 2 girls (the youngest three are present in the picture above). Out of her seven children, only two are able to go to school. She, herself had not received any education, and nor did her 3 other siblings. She is learning to write her name for the first time through the CLM program. Her case manager, Emile, shows her how to write her name each week and assigns homework for her. She was the only one among the 10 women that gathered for the meeting that day who proudly showed her homework. Emile kept saying “tres bien,” and she even wrote her name in front of everyone. In her shy smile in response to the complements of others, I saw an eagerness to learn. She is eager to learn because she understands that education is a means to get out of the poverty and hunger she and her children are fighting every day.
When I ask her how often she and her children eat, she answers that she eats 2 or 3 days in a week. When the case manager visits, he gives her the weekly stipend of 300 gourds, of which she saves 50 and puts 100 into a sol (a group of women pooling money together and then taking turns to collect the sum). With the rest, she is able to buy 2 cups of rice, some oil, and some sugar. Although the family cannot eat enough, they can quench their hunger in this way for the week. Even though she started receiving the stipend already, which lasts for the first six months of the program until the woman can generate a stable income from her enterprises, she is unable to eat every day. The level of poverty in which the members of the CLM program find themselves in the beginning is so great that it takes more than a month for them to start eating regularly.
Under the tree near her house, she hugs two of her youngest children. The youngest is wearing underwear, but the other one is completely naked. I can see his chest bones sticking out because he is so thin. She says that he has been sick with diarrhea and fever for a while. When it gets bad, she says, blood comes out with diarrhea. Earlier, Emile had given her three Cera Lyte 70 packages. Before giving them to Mislain, he asked, “How do you prepare the medicine?” She explained the procedures of preparing the medicine step by step as if she had recited it many times before.
Mislain received 2 goats from CLM. She will also receive 5 chickens before the month ends. Goat-raising and chicken-raising are the enterprises she had chosen for herself. The chickens she will receive are egg layers. With these enterprises, she hopes to feed her children better and send them to school. Today, she also received a package full of 10 different vegetable seeds. A Christian organization called Hope Seeds had provided all CLM members with these packets. Emile had shown the CLM members of the village how to prepare the ground before planting the seeds, and used Mislaine ’s garden as an example. He helped her plant some peppers today.
She eventually wants to start her own business. When she gains enough money from her savings and the expected revenues from the animals the CLM has provided for her, she wants to start selling foodstuff in the market. She also wants to buy more livestock to generate more revenue if she can. But her strongest desire for the future is simply to eat and to send her children to school, and even to university. She wants to buy a house and some land as well. Right now, she is renting the house as well as the small plot of the land for her garden for 1250 gourds per year.
When I am about to leave, she asks me, “Can you help me accomplish my goals?” I answer, “I believe that the CLM program will help you achieve your goals and hopes.” That’s all I can tell her for now, but I really do believe in the people who are working for the CLM program. The people I have met here genuinely care for her and others like her, and they are determined to help CLM members to solve their problems and escape absolute poverty. I hope there is some way I can help her directly, too.
She proudly poses for the picture next to her small garden. She had just finished planting peppers. She covered the plot with some banana leaves so the seeds don’t wash away when it rains hard.
Mislain’s nine-year-old daughter peeks out the door to see me, a stranger, taking the photos of her house. I hope her future could be brighter than the sky that is so blue.
She proudly poses for the picture next to her small garden. She had just finished planting peppers. She covered the plot with some banana leaves so the seeds don’t wash away when it rains hard.
Mislain’s nine-year-old daughter peeks out the door to see me, a stranger, taking the photos of her house. I hope her future could be brighter than the sky that is so blue. 