wfn.org | CWS Helping Reunite Haiti Families, expand food co-ops

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> For Immediate Release

Haiti stage 2: CWS helping expand rural food co-ops, reunite child
domestic workers with their families

Agency, partners 'Helping people where they are' in midst of country's
frustrations

SANTO DOMINGO, DR/Port-au-Prince, HAITI -- Initial Haitian government
plans to relocate huge numbers of families to cities outside
Port-au-Prince are being thwarted by land ownership issues and costs,
adding to the frustrations of those made homeless by the quake. But
humanitarian agency Church World Service is dealing within those
realities and says it now is expanding its work to help families recover
where they are and to support host communities stretched to accommodate
migrating survivors.

Those programs will range from repair of houses damaged by the quake
and expansion of host homes where survivors are permanently relocating,
to building food security for all by expanding already-successful farm
cooperatives.

The effort marks transition of the international NGO's focus on
emergency response to sustainable recovery and rebuilding in
quake-devastated Haiti.

"We'll still be providing emergency aid as needed, but we're now
working with partners in Haiti to respond to some very specific needs
and for the longer-term development programs that are necessary to truly
enable Haiti to build back better," said CWS development and
humanitarian assistance director Donna Derr.

With contributions already received and donations the agency hopes to
raise in an expanded U.S. fundraising appeal, CWS says its specific
rehabilitation focus will include:
â??        Permanent house repair for homes that can be made habitable and
safe with minor repairs
â??        Expansion of host housing in locations outside quake-affected
areas
â??        Increasing food security and food availability for the displaced
and their host communities
â??        Basic services and transitional support for displaced people now
living in spontaneous
encampments
â??        Rebuilding and expanding local capacity to provide services and
protection for vulnerable children and youth in Port-au-Prince
â??        Individual small grants for quick livelihood recovery
â??        Direct services for 1,200 people with disabilities and their
families in metropolitan Port-au-Prince
â??        Ongoing provision of material support particularly to people
still living in tent camps
â??        Continued management and operation of a Santo Domingo -
Port-au-Prince humanitarian corridor

Rural agri co-ops: stretched to help feed migrating survivors
In Haiti's Artibonite and North West regions, CWS's Derr says, "There
are 13 rural cooperatives that are supported by Church World Service and
our Haitian partner SKDE (Christian Center for Integrated Development).
Year after year and disaster after disaster in Haiti, these co-ops have
continued to grow and help their communities enjoy food security. Now
they face the challenge of providing enough food for many of the more
than 200,000 people who fled Port-au-Prince."

Derr says CWS support will include effective and transparent management
of the co-ops' revolving funds and fair credit opportunities for women
entrepreneurs and farmers to expand their crop production.

"We'll also be assisting co-ops in strengthening the 'Passing on the
Gift' schemes that most of them carry on," she said. "It's an
empowering, self-perpetuating way to build income and food sources, in
which members who receive gift of animals such as chickens or goats
share their offspring with other community members."

In Fonds Parisien and Ganthier, near the border with the Dominican
Republic, Church World Service and partners Servicio Social de Iglesias
Dominicanas and Christian Aid are already serving two spontaneous camps
of displaced people-survivors who had no assistance until CWS's partner
agencies arrived. "Here, we'll provide food, water, and temporary
shelter materials and assist residents in leadership formation and
community organizing," said Derr.

Ch

ild domestic workers, former gang members, teen mothers to benefit
CWS and Haitian partners have a longstanding commitment to serving
vulnerable children. At the outset of its Haiti quake response, Church
World Service determined to expand an existing program focusing on the
ongoing needs of the country's most vulnerable children, including those
who work as domestic servants.

The agency's long-term assistance will continue that work in
Port-au-Prince, along with support for former gang members and teenage
mothers in Lasaline and Carrefour Feuilles. Part of that work will also
include a pilot family reintegration project to help reunited restavek
children and their families in rural areas.

During the quake, local partner FOPJ (Ecumenical Foundation for Peace
and Justice) was left homeless like many of the children it serves, when
that agency's center was severely damaged. FOPJ and CWS assistance to
the youth and children is continuing nonetheless, with education,
vocational training, life skills and emotional support services. CWS
plans to assist FOPJ with the purchase a new building in which to house
its community center for children.

With no functioning port now in Haiti, and as the country looks at the
task of building and rebuilding much of its infrastructure, CWS and its
partners in the ACT Alliance also "intend to make sure that the
humanitarian corridor from the Dominican Republic to Haiti remains a
lifeline," said Derr.  Those agencies and other NGOs have relied on
sending relief and materials through the DR.
How to help
Contributions may be made online or by phoning 800-297-1516 or by
mailing to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515 (please
indicate Haiti Earthquake).

Church World Service is member of the ACT Alliance, an international
coalition of churches and related organizations responding to
emergencies and collaborating in development work.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

> Church World Service
> 475 Riverside Drive
> New York, NY 10115
> (212) 870-2676