Horrifically Strong Earthquake hits the South of Haiti on August 14th
If you would like to support ORE's Earthquake Recovery Program - offering shelter, food, drinking water, clothes and much more - please click on the link at www.oreworld.org/donate Anything you may care to give will go directly to those in need. |
Contact numbers: +509 37 92 1718 / +1 412 608 7518 / +1305 396 6138/ +33 769 33 65 23.
We have posted some interesting relief activity photo on our updated ORE blog site: Visit ORE's blog
ORE in Camp-Perrin miraculously has all its buildings standing and functional
we are importing tents, providing medical assistance, pure drinking water and producing 100 tons of corn meal for the hungry.
we are importing tents, providing medical assistance, pure drinking water and producing 100 tons of corn meal for the hungry.
Nimi Finnigan writes about the recent earthquake
Dear Friends,
This was supposed to be a celebratory video. For over 30 years, ORE, a grass roots organization has dedicated love, time, and effort to helping Haiti. It was (and is) a love story between my parents and this island. It was (and is) their sole life mission to help the environment, help and promote education, and support Haitian communities in any way possible. Out of their love story and vision, the NGO grew. We count hundreds of farmers and communities as our family. Together, we've been blessed with the opportunity to implement many programs in Haiti: reforestation on a large scale, planting millions of fruit trees, nutrition (including biofortified food staples to prevent malnutrition), and education.
Through a succession of political turmoil and civil wars, and 2010's devastating earthquake that particularly affected the capital of Haiti, we've been on the ground. In 2010, we took as many school buses to help transport the wounded from the capital to the south, we transformed school buildings into dormitories with beds for those who needed to shelter, we fed several hundred of the displaced, we found new homes and new employment for those who had lost everything.
And yesterday, August 14, 2021, we were hit by another powerful and deadly quake. This time, the trauma was more personal for me and ORE. The 7.2 earthquake hit home. Literally. The south of Haiti where I grew up. The neighborhood porches that I spent my evenings on are gone, the churches that I attended are gone, and the more crippling and paralyzing truth: some that have hugged me for the better part of my life didn't make it out in time before their house came down on them.
We are hurt. We are grieving, but ORE, our farmers and friends are on the ground. Luckily, our buildings still stand (my house, the home my father built is also still standing), and so far, most of are farmers are safe. They made it out of their houses in time. By extraordinary good fortune, the buildings at ORE are intact, which means that we will be able to offer assistance to those in need.
So, now it's time to help: we've started driving through towns and countryside, getting reports and assessing the needs.
As I write this, Eliassaint Magloire, our director in Haiti is making his way through the south assessing the damages and putting together a list of what needs to be done and how are we going to do it.
Here's what we know so far, and what our farmers are working on putting together: there is a need for shelter, medical services and supplies, food, and drinking water.
I will share more and update you on what we find along with how we are putting together these necessities. Our ORE website will also be updated.
Your help in this would be more than a blessing, so please use the link below to support us if you can. Also please share it with anyone you think
would like to help.
I apologize for this long letter instead of a well put together video.
There are some long days ahead, but we will walk through them with courage and faith.
Dr Mousson Pierre's Education Foundation
Those who knew Mousson are determined to continue all the programs and activities that were dear to her, and in particular to respect her dying wish which was that the education program that she had sucscessfully build up over the years should be continued as an Education Foundation. So the Dr Mousson's Education Foundation has been established by ORE. For more details watch the video by clicking below on the photo or the link.
Click on this link to see the 7 minute video on the education program: https://youtu.be/CM-GeTVx3v4"Since the horrific earthquake of 2010, with your ongoing help Mousson's education program began funding over 30 students a year. School fees in Haiti range from $315 to $600 a year, making it impossible for poor families to get a get a good enougheducation to ever hope to get into university.
The key to Mousson's program's success was selecting bright, motivated children and providing education to the same students until they reached university level and became self-sufficient. The results are remarkable, with highly skilled doctors, nurses and agronomists among those who are now important and productive members of the community.
The funds donated for the education program are managed by Nimi Finnigan PhD and Agr Eliassaint Magloire.
How ORE's core projects are helping the people of Haiti
The Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment is a small grassroots organization established in Haiti in 1985 to protect the environment and increase local farmers' income. In the design of our development projects, we recognize that all four aspects of Haiti's rural predicament - economic, ecological, nutritional and technical - are inter-linked. By working closely with farmer groups, over the years, we have been able to offer practical help to the rural population in the south of Haiti, the majority of whom depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Economic gains and improved nutrition result from high value tree crops (grafted fruit trees, such as mango, avocado, citrus - and bamboo), improved seeds (including QPM maize, iron-rich beans) and other high-yield staple crops. These are some of our projects and goals.
Agronome Eliassaint Magloire is the CEO of ORE in Haiti.
We are all deeply moved by the loss of Dr Mousson whose message and mission were to fight to improve the quality of life of those around her. Agr Eliassaint Magloire has ably replaced her as the CEO of ORE in Haiti. He is continuing the same activities that Mousson and he had worked on together for decades - with the same tenacity, courage, and compassion - and this is also reflected by the loyalty and determination of the entire team working at ORE in the south of Haiti. We are happy to see that the program is continuing on its positive course using innovative approaches to helping and supporting local communities. Eliassaint is putting his technical experience into the management of the ORE's core projects funded by the UN development projects, the ministry of agriculture, FOKAL and other donors.
ORE has a loyal and dynamic team, with decades of experience in project implementation. The team has a huge advantage in that the majority of the team-members coming from a farming background, with hands-on practical farming wisdom and the ability to adapt project implementation to work under a wide range of different conditions. The team is also headed by a number of speciliased agronomists with all the technical know-how required and an open-minded approach that helps to create a positive reaction from the local communities.
A look at some of our main programs in Haiti
Among Eliassaint Magloire's acheivments are the creation of a tissue culture lab which mulitplied rare and valuable bamboo varieties from Hawaii, banana varities from CIMMYT, Mexico, which are resistant to widespread local diseases, and also 'minisetting' the new ultra rapid technique of propagating yams, a valuable cash crop and erosion barrier for hillside farming. He also has for over twenty years been using his technical expertise from his years studying at the University of Florida, to breed (with absolutely no GMO whatsoever) maize varieties. Maize, corn grits are a major staple crop and food source in Haiti. ORE has been produing high performance seed often in in collaboration with CIMMYT, CIAT and Agrosud. The new varieties created by careful (and non-GMO) selection techniques, which are perfect for traditional local farming condition: little or no fertilisers, rainfed production without irrigation, and soils which are often less than optimum. Over the past decades the yields of corn throughout the area have tripled, and with specially prepared ORE seeds yield can reach remarkably high yields. In addition to regular corn, Eliassaint working with CIMMYT has produced, (once again without any genetic modification or GMO), quality protein maize (QPM): whereas regular corn has many but not all of the amino acids required to provide a full protein diets, QPM has complete protein and the same protein value as whole milk - an extraordinary benefit specially for growing children. The list of crop improvements acheived by Eliassaint technical expertise is too long to mention fully here... vitamin enriched sweet potatoes, grafted fruit tress and the highly popular dried mangoes from ORE's facility - to say nothing of his soil conservation and reforestation technique - and the hard work on the Relief Activies after the earthquake of 2010 and the more recent devastation of hurricane Matthew.
ORE has been working in Haiti since 1985
Take a look at what people have been saying about us
Dr. Mousson Pierre Finnigan, CEO of ORE Haiti, was among 15 women selected
for the national first award of 'Femmes de Mérite' en 2009.