Quixote Center’s work in Haiti prioritizes systemic change. Our theory of change has three aspects:
Quixote Center initially launched Haiti Reborn in 1991 during a period of renewal in Haiti, following the election of Aristide and the rise of Lavalas, a popular movement for democratic reform. The coup that ousted Aristide later that year led us to focus our efforts on speaking out against United States intervention in Haiti. US foreign policy as well as development aid still has enormous influence over Haiti and its future. US NGOs and churches also funnel significant funds into Haiti, leading many Haitians to dub their country “the republic of NGOs.”
The Quixote Center partners with Haitian organizations to support smallholder farmers to build sustainable livelihoods from agriculture and reforestation. The Jean Marie Vincent Formation Center located in Grepen, Haiti, is our primary partner in the north while in the south DCCH, the Christian Community Development in Haiti is our main partner in Gouin, Les Cayes.
The Jean Marie Vincent Formation Center houses a tree nursery, a model instructional garden and multiple classrooms. These resources help farmers increase the yields of their farms, find new markets for their products, and gain access to the seeds and technology they need to succeed. The agronomy team from the JMV Center travel throughout the Arrondissement of Gros Morne to deliver workshops organized with a network of small farm associations, the Catholic Church’s Caritas network, and local schools. With our support, the JMV Center also maintains the Tet Mon model forest, a reforestation project that is the only one of its kind in the region. The JMV team holds formation sessions on reforestation and tree maintenance for local leaders, schoolchildren, and agronomy students.
The Social and Economic Recovery Program was launched in January 2025 as a scalable and replicable pilot project working with 100 rural families reaching up to 1000 people. These participating families are the protagonists of this program that aims to improve their income and food security while building resilience and eliminating dependence on outside assistance. Based on a 2023 community study, the project provides targeted investments in agroecological training, animal care, women empowerment through microloans and small business ventures. After collecting baseline data, the program will be tracking progress with the goal to increase household income by 20%, school attendance by 60%, crop yields by 60% and trade diversification among women.
Stay strong. It will be a tough few years.
We reaffirm our commitment to support and promote the rights and dignity of people on the move, as well as migrants already seeking a new life in our country. We reaffirm the humanity and dignity of LGBTQ persons and offer our love. We stand behind Bishop Budde’s plea for compassion and mercy toward the most vulnerable.
The liberation of our continent means more than overcoming economic, social, and political dependence. It means, in a deeper sense, to see the becoming of humankind as a process of human emancipation in history. It is to see humanity in search of a qualitatively different society in which it will be free from all servitude, in which it will be the artisan of its own destiny. It is to seek the building up of a new humanity… Gustavo Gutierrez
With all that’s going on in the past few weeks, you may have missed the news from Haiti. Criminal gangs shot at a couple of airliners flying into and out of Haiti, injuring at least one person and leading the FAA to ban U.S. airlines from flying into Haiti for 30 days.
This report comes from Sr. Pat Dillon, RJM, a Quixote Center partner in Gros Morne, Haiti.
The Quixote Center encourages you to take action supporting efforts to stop arms trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are currently four bills introduced in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and we are also reaching out to the White House to recommend executive action on this issue.
I recently lost 9 pigs. This small pig is the only one I have left. If there was a vaccination campaign, it would make a positive impact in our community. I previously lost a mother sow together with her 6 piglets. Then I lost a mother sow together with 9 of her piglets. This small pig is the only one left. Even if we were asked to pay a fee for the vaccines, we would agree to do that because we use these pigs to pay school fees for our children. We do not have any other economic activity that would enable us to send our children to school.
Quixote Center partners in Gros Morne, Haiti, are dependent on mango exports for their main source of cash. Haitian producers grow the Fransik variety small, yellow, juicy and sweet. In 2022 Haiti exported 28 million mangoes to the United States, their main customer.
Haiti continues to appear in unsettling news reports. There is a new presidential council which seems to have already split into factions. The violence in the capitol continues unabated, with many Haitians living in fear, and most with life-threatening food insecurity.
Quixote Center began its Haiti work in 1999. The first of many projects was a partnership with the Jean Marie Vincent Center in Grepen to restore the forest on a mountainside called Tet Mon. In 1999 the mountain was bare; today it is home to more than 200,000 trees. With your help, Quixote Center continues to sustain the forest by covering the cost of maintenance and security. The Tet Mon forest has become a model for the whole region.
Haiti is desperate. According to the UN special envoy to Haiti, criminal gangs control 80% of the capital and are moving further and further into other parts of the country, leaving many people trapped in their homes with little means to feed their families, or forced to flee their homes with nothing. Scarcity of gasoline and water, and high prices of essential products are transforming an already distressed State into ashes.
Haiti’s capital has shut down. With gangs in control, the airport is closed, roads are blocked and the de facto prime minster is stuck in Puerto Rico.
