What We Do
Thriving Villages is a Christian organization called to demonstrate God's compassion to Haiti’s rural poor. We work collaboratively with individuals and organizations, using our gifts and skills to address issues of poverty and development in Pestel, Haiti.
As Christians, we’re showing God’s love by empowering some of the world’s poorest people to thrive.
Thriving Villages International works in Pestel, a remote section of southwest Haiti that is poor even by Haitian standards, which is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. In Pestel, we work with an amazing group of local Haitians called KPA, Kretyan Pwogré Ansanm (Christians Progress Together) to save and improve lives.
We work with the five leaders of KPA to provide goats, food, seeds, education and elderly assistance. We also look forward to restarting a health-care network and assisting with rebuilding. The area was struck hard by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and four years later, many houses still are badly damaged. Adding to the difficulty of life in rural Haiti, civil unrest and COVID-19 resulted in unprecedented inflation.
Pestel is hard to get to; consequently, few organizations go there. The region lies eight hours from Port-au-Prince across mountain roads that eventually become little more than rocky riverbeds. Some 240 villages and 45,000 people live in Pestel’s six sections. Working with Haitians allows us to continue helping communities to prosper during the pandemic, when many organizations who rely on an in-country presence.
In the Pestel area, even small gains can be life-changing. For example, in 2019, Thriving Villages
- Supported 85 children of impoverished parents at the St. Rose de Lima School in Ferrier, Haiti with teacher salaries, books, educational materials, and school uniforms. Parents and community leaders in Pestel recognize that education is a key step toward breaking the cycle of poverty. The school’s capacity is closer to 50, but the generous teachers are unwilling to turn away any child who wants to learn.
- Sent four students to university to study agriculture and nursing, and supported one nursing intern who may return to serve in Pestel – this is a big deal, since many students stay in the city after graduating.
- Gave emergency food to 690 house-bound people (138 families at an estimated five people per family, probably more) during the worst of the lock-down protests in Port-au-Prince in the fall of 2019. The food kits included 10 pounds of rice, oil, cans of salmon, beans, and one bottle of chlorine for water treatment. Haitian partners risked their lives to buy and transport the aid through armed roadblocks.
- Provided seeds to 111 impoverished families in communities in and around Pestel, combatting food insecurity in the long-term, since farmers use part of their crop as next season's seeds.
- Provided 40 goats to needy 40 families through the KPA community leaders, with the agreement that each family would share one young goat with another family, who in turn would share a goat, making this a perpetually-expanding gift. Goats can produce around three quarts of high-nutritional milk a day, and produce 1-3 kids per year, making them a valuable remedy to combating food insecurity.
- Enabled 220 students at the only public secondary school in Pestel to have free filtered drinking water. This is such a valuable yet simple aid to education. The filters allow students to drink water during the day, when previously they had to either buy water, which most couldn't do, or go thirsty.
- Gave books to 32 7th graders in Pestel public school who previously had no books to use in class!
- Helped 15 elderly people with a small monthly assistance stipend of just over $20 USD a month. When one worker brought some bread and a bonbon, the elderly lady thanked him and told him, “This is the first food I’ve had today.”
- Provided a small stipend for five KPA community-development leaders, and education expenses for 42 KPA delegates who oversee the needs of people in dozens of towns.
Beyond the material gains, we pray for our Haitian friends, and we treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve, as people made, like us, in God’s image.
Mesi anpil ak Bondye beni ou. Thank you very much, and may God bless you for helping the men, women and children of rural Haiti.