At the end of a peninsula on lake Peligre sits a pink and white wooden house, a cooking shed and storage hut. The place is serene and beautiful but remote – it is a two hour walk over Seresit Mountain to the nearest town of Lascahobas. Thonyde Jean, 35, lives here in Kapable with her 5 children and family but the remoteness means life isn’t easy.

“Life is difficult in Kapable. It’s a constant struggle…our roads are not accessible to vehicles, we have to carry things on our head and that makes doing our trading difficult.”

Thonyde and her family grow fruit and vegetables on the slopes and fields around her house. They also keep goats and sell their produce at the busy Lascahobas market on Wednesdays. However, as for over half of Haiti’s 9.5 million people who live below the poverty line, this is not enough to keep the family going.

Making money from selling her produce is difficult and often leaves her short when it comes to buying the staples she needs. While Tonyde will get 150 Gourd (US$ 4) for a stem of bananas, it costs 200 Gourd (US$ 5) to buy a can of rice. Sometimes money simply runs out. Her produce is seasonal and does not last the entire year.

Environmental problems, such as storms and erosion, only add to the existing difficulties. Haiti has suffered from 4 cyclones since August 2008. The heavy rains has meant that Tonyde’s corn crop was simply washed away and lost.

“Whenever it rains, especially if it rains hard, the rain water takes all the soil and washes it into the river. Here we don’t do soil conservation by using terraces. If only we had technical support to do that maybe things would be different.”

Thonyde is now pinning her hopes on the success of a new project run by ActionAid partner, COSADH (Coordination of Actions on Health and Development in Haiti). COSADH is working with local people to build a sustainable animal rearing agribusiness in the area. They do this by providing training in animal husbandry and by supplying additional goats. Tonyde has already half built the enclosure for her new goats and is awaiting their arrival.

“I hope that the new goat experiment will be successful and that will give us a better tomorrow.”

Kim Trathen in Haiti

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